Theory-Driven Evaluation

Theory-Driven Process Evaluation

Theory-driven process evaluation focuses on assessing the portion of action model implementation in the conceptual framework (see the Program Theory entry). More specifically, theory-driven process evaluation is a holistic assessment of the congruency between the major components of program theory, especially the portion of the action model, and their actual implementation.

An example illustrating theory-driven process evaluation is an evaluation of a large anti-drug abuse program for middle school students in Taiwan (Chen, 1997). The program asked school teachers to identify drug-abusing students and provide them with counseling services. The congruency between the action model of the program and actual implementation is illustrated in Table 1.

Intervening Mechanism Evaluation

The model of intervening mechanism evaluation focuses on the change model of the conceptual framework of program theory. The change model consists of three components: intervention, determinants, and outcomes. The model of intervening mechanism evaluation is illustrated in Figure 1.

Using the evaluation of a school-based anti-smoking program (Chen, Quane, Garland, & Marcin, 1988) as an example, program designers devised a comic book with an anti-smoking story as an intervention for changing students' attitudes and behaviors regarding smoking. The determinants were the students' interest in reading and keeping the comic book. The evaluation assessed not only whether keeping the comic book affected the number of times the comic book was read but also whether the number of times the book was read affected students' smoking related attitudes and behavior.

Figure 1 is a basic model of intervening mechanism evaluation. The model can be expanded to include multiple determinants in sequential order. To date, the intervening mechanism evaluation is the most popular type of theory-driven evaluation in terms of application.

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