Evaluative Reasoning. Methodological Briefs Impact Evaluation No. 4

Evaluation, by definition, answers evaluative questions, that is, questions about quality and value. This is what makes evaluation so much more useful and relevant than the mere measurement of indicators or summaries of observations and stories.
Decision makers frequently need evaluation to help them work out what to do to build on strengths and address weaknesses. To do so, they must know not only what the strengths and weaknesses are, but also which are the most important or serious, and how well or poorly the programme or policy is performing on them. For example, they need to know not only by how much a certain outcome1 has shifted, but also the quality and value of this outcome. To answer evaluative questions, what is meant by ‘quality’ and ‘value’ must first be defined and then relevant evidence gathered. Quality refers to how good something is; value refers to how good it is in terms of the specific situation, in particular taking into account the resources used to produce it and the needs it was supposed to address. Evaluative reasoning is required to synthesize these elements to formulate
defensible (i.e., well reasoned and well evidenced) answers to the evaluative questions.