I would thank my supervisor to have provided me the opportunity to work on the research study that is based on the “Compare & Contrast Social Research Methods to Program Evaluation Research Method”? I would like to thank my friends & co-workers, who have helped me while conducting the research.
I would like to thank to Mr. ———————————————— to guide me in each step of my research study.
Last but not the least; I would like to thank my parents for their moral support. Without the constant help of my parents, it would have been impossible for me to complete the research in an appropriate manner.
Thanking you,
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL RESEARCH
OVERVIEW OF PROGRAM EVALUATION
CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH
CHARACTERISTICS OF PROGRAM EVALUATION
SIMILARITIES BETWEEN SOCIAL RESEARCH & PROGRAM EVALUATION
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOCIAL RESEARCH & PROGRAM EVALUATION
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
Social research methods are a methodical procedure of conceptualizing, dissecting furthermore investigating the human life in order to check & develop the information of social life & conduct of the human. This system tries to find different phenomena that are both clarified & unexplained. This system serves to clear up misconstrued reality of social life. Program evaluation research strategies are single individual orderly studies headed irregularly on the other h& on an unrehearsed reason to overview how well frameworks are working. They are oftentimes guided by masters external to the system, either inside or outside the association, furthermore by task executives. This system customarily examines achievement of venture ends of the line in the setting of distinctive parts of task execution or in the setting in which it happens. This report highlights the similarities & differences between the two concepts. The report starts with a brief overview of the two concepts & tries to determine the characteristics of social & program evaluation research. Then the paper discusses the similarities between the two & finds that both the concepts are similar in their main objective, result & research methodology. Similarly, differences are also discussed. Before concluding the paper a brief description about how the research conducted in for completing this study is provided. The paper is concluded by giving a summary of the whole work.
From many years, debate is going on to understand the similarities & differences between social research methods & program evaluation methods. For instance, in the year 1999, Michael Lipsey, Howard Freeman & Peter Rossi demonstrated that the program evaluation is the function of social research method to assess the implementation & design of the program. However, Michael Patton in the year 1997 argued that program evaluation is not the function of social research; it is a systematic approach of guiding the decision makers to make effective decisions that they cannot meet using the social research methods.
The study discusses the similarities & differences between the social research methods & program evaluation & will also discuss the various characteristics of the methods.
Social research methods are a systematic process of conceptualizing, analyzing & also exploring the human life so as to verify & extend the knowledge of social life & behavior of the human. This method seeks to discover various phenomena that are both explained & unexplained. This method helps to clarify misconceived reality of social life (Dooley, 2001). Social research methods include application of various scientific methods for analyzing & understanding the social life with the present knowledge system. The key idea behind this methodology is to find out latest facts, latest knowledge & latest relations linking with the old ones. Since the behavior of the human beings involves laws & values. The key principle of this research method is to find out the proper laws that would effectively guide to analyze & study the human behavior & contact (Lewis-Beck, Bryman & Liao, 2013).
P.V Young says that social research is a systematic method of finding out various old & new facts. He further says that the sequences of this method are interlinked; there exist causal explanations & also various laws that are used to govern them. The social research methods must satisfy the following attributes:
Program evaluation methods are single person methodical studies led intermittently alternately on an impromptu premise to survey how well a system are working. They are frequently directed by specialists outer to the program, either inside or outside the organization, & also by project directors (Thomas, 2012). This method ordinarily analyzes accomplishment of project destinations in the setting of different parts of project execution or in the setting in which it happens. Four principle sorts can be distinguished, all of which utilize measures of project execution, alongside other data, to take in the profits of a system or how to enhance it. Program Evaluation may be directed at a few stages amid a program’s lifetime. Each of these stages brings up distinctive issues to be replied by the evaluator, & correspondingly diverse Program Evaluation methodologies are required. Rossi, Lipsey & Freeman (2004) propose the accompanying sorts of appraisal, which may be proper at these distinctive stages:
As indicated by Rossi et al. (2004, p. 222), ‘a measure that is inadequately picked or misguided can totally undermine the value of an effect evaluation by delivering deceiving evaluations. Just if conclusion measures are substantial, dependable & fittingly delicate can affect appraisals be viewed as sound’.
Various characteristics of social research can be drawn from the above discussed overview (Kumar, 2002):
The following is the characteristics of program evaluation:
The similarities between social research & program evaluation are to build effective knowledge base of a specific topic. Social research & program evaluation forms both include the accumulation of data through beforehand & distributed articles, meetings, composed reviews & individual observation. Social research & program evaluation both uncover qualities & shortcomings identified with the point being surveyed. The information prompts upgrades & the advancement of objectives (McCaig & Dahlberg, 2010). Both the social research & the program evaluation involve constructing effective theories, then designing the research methodology & also collecting data & analyzing the data. Both the researches define reliability & validity that accounts towards good research. This makes sure that the sampling procedures to target the right audiences for the research are adequate & also effectively used collect the data. In both the cases, the research method & collection & analysis of data include learning from the sample drawn, collect, measure & analyze the gathered information. Social research & program evaluation involves various stakeholders to make sure that the relevant research questions are asked to meet the objective of the research (Harwell, n.d.). Both the social research & the program evaluation use (Glass & Worthen, 1971):
Social science research does not go for or accomplish evaluative conclusions. It is confined to observational (instead of evaluative) research, & builds its decisions just with respect to authentic comes about that is, watched, measured, or ascertained information. Social science research does not make models or qualities & afterward incorporate them with true comes about to reach evaluative conclusions (Sarantakos, 2005). Truth be told, the prevailing social science teaching for a long time prided itself on being esteem free. So for the minute, social science research rejects evaluation. The intent of social research is explanation, description & exploration that are to explain various things, describe events & situations & also familiarize with the specific topic (sagepub.com, 2009).
Program Evaluation decides the legitimacy, worth or estimation of things. The Program Evaluation methodology distinguishes pertinent values or models that apply to what is, no doubt assessed, performs experimental research utilizing strategies from the social sciences, & afterward coordinates conclusions with the guidelines into a general Program Evaluation or set of Program Evaluations (Scriven, 1991). The intent of program evaluation is to figure out if the system is productive regarding utilizing assets shrewdly to perform the required work, compelling by execution measures or destinations set, & actualized as expressed. The proficiency & viability of a system can help decide, fix responsibility issues, & support in arranging (cdc.gov, n.d.).
Research plans to create new information inside a field. In a perfect world, analysts outline studies to have the capacity to sum up discoveries to the entire population–every single individual inside the gathering being examined. Program Evaluation just concentrates on the specific project close by. Program Evaluations may face included asset & time obligations .Daniel L. Stufflebeam, Ph.d., a remarkable evaluator, caught it briefly: “The motivation behind Program Evaluation is to enhance, not prove.” at the end of the day, research strives to secure that a specific element brought about a specific impact.
An alternate noticeable evaluator, Michael J. Scriven, Ph.d., notes that Program Evaluation relegates quality to a system while research looks to be esteem free (Coffman, 2003). Researchers gather information, present results & after that make determinations that explicitly connection to the exact information. Evaluators include additional steps. They gather information, inspect how the information lines up with formerly decided norms (otherwise called criteria or benchmarks) & focus the value of the system. So while evaluators likewise make conclusions that must reliably reflect the exact information, they make the additional strides of contrasting the project information with execution benchmarks & judging the estimation of the system. While this may appear to cast evaluators in the part of judge we must recall that Program Evaluations focus the estimation of projects so they can help enhance them (Armstrong-Ward & others, 2011).
This present research is fully based on the secondary data using scholarly journals, literature review articles & reference books. This method has helped to find information related to social research & also program evaluation research. The use of secondary has helped to carry the analysis between the social research & program evaluation research more quickly. This has helped to save both money & time in collecting the primary data & also avoid effort duplication. There are numerous data available in the internet which has helped in completing this research & make effective comparison & contrast between two research methods.
In conclusion, both the social research & program evaluation are interlinked to each other. From the research it can stated that program evaluation is the subset of social research. The expressions “social research” & “program evaluation” are as often as possible utilized conversely to depict the same activity; notwithstanding they each one have a different definition. Program evaluation characterizes the procedure of gaining data or information while social research alludes to the understanding or evaluation of the data collected. Despite the fact that they have separate definitions, there are additionally shared characteristics in the middle of social research & program evaluation.
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