LEARNING OUTCOMES

Recall and deepen the knowledge and methodological and technical skills needed for social and evaluative research in the field of educational, training and social policies; provide knowledge on some specific approaches to the evaluation of public policies; present and make the students to experience some techniques and tools used in social and evaluative research in these areas.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Consolidate the knowledge of the concepts related to the evaluation of social and educational policies.

2. To know specifically some approaches to evaluation and to know how to apply them to concrete cases.

3. Know and experiment new techniques of social and evaluative research and consolidate the knowledge of those discussed in the first year of the master's degree.

4. Know some concepts and be able to apply some basic techniques of social statistics.

At the end of the course the student, in light of the need to evaluate an intervention in the social and / or educational field, must be able to: a) ask evaluation questions, b) analyze the objectives of the intervention and its mode of implementation , c) sketching an evaluation research design by identifying the most appropriate approach and techniques for the case, d) building evaluation indicators and being able to assign them differential values, e) construct tools for data collection, f) perform elementary analyzes of frequency distribution, g) prefigure the possible use of the data collected and analyzed.

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures with support of slides that will be uploaded on Aulaweb, presentation and critical discussion of case studies, group works and role playing.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The course involves the deepening of knowledge and methodological and technical skills related to the process of social and evaluative research acquired by the students with the course "Design and evaluation of social and educational policies" of the first year. After a reminder of the fundamental concepts of public policies and their evaluation, the phases of evaluative research will be illustrated and explored also through concrete examples and practical exercises. Some social research techniques used in this context will be experienced, with particular attention to group techniques and their use to construct of the program theory and for the definition and the differential weighting of evaluative indicators. They will then be treated the statistical techniques used in social research for data analysis, even with exercises under the guidance of the teacher. Particular attention will be devoted to the theory-driven evaluation, participatory evaluation and the use of counterfactual evaluation to estimate the effects of public policies. The course consists of 36 hours of lessons, where the lectures will alternate in group activities in presence.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

To be confirmed at the beginning of the course

Torrigiani C., 2010, Valutare per apprendere. Capitale sociale e teoria del programma, FrancoAngeli, Milano.

Bezzi C., 2013, Fare ricerca con i gruppi, FrancoAngeli, Milano.

Tomei G., 2016, Valutare gli outcome dei programmi complessi, FrancoAngeli, Milano.

The material on Aulaweb