aes24 International Evaluation Conference

Authors: Moderator:  Prof Rick Cummings, Emeritus Professor Murdoch University, AES Fellow
Key Speaker: Eleanor Williams, Managing Director, Australian Centre for Evaluation
Panelists: Prof Lisa Cameron, Professional Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne
Dr Wendy Jarvie, Adjunct Professor, Public Service Research Group, University of NSW
Bruce Cunningham, Assistant Secretary, Employment Evaluation Branch, Commonwealth Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
Commentators: Prof Patricia Rogers, Former Professor of Public Sector Evaluation, RMIT University, AES Fellow
Scott Bayley, Principal, Scott Bayley Evaluation Service, AES Fellow

The Commonwealth Government has established the Australian Centre for Evaluation (ACE) to put evaluation evidence at the heart of policy design and decision-making by improving the volume, quality, and use of evaluation evidence to support better policy and programs that improve the lives of Australians. This aligns well with the aim of the AES to improve the theory, practice and use of evaluation for people involved in evaluation. The creation of ACE provides an excellent opportunity for the AES and its members to work with a government agency on our common purposes. This collaboration has already commenced through shared activities and, in particular, the involvement of the responsible Minister, Dr Andrew Leigh, as a keynote speaker at the 2023 AES Conference.

An area that has attracted considerable attention is the mandate for ACE to include randomised control trials (RCTs) in at least some of their evaluation studies of Commonwealth programs. This issue was the central topic of Minister Leigh’s keynote address and created considerable debate and discussion at the conference. This demonstrates that this is a topic of importance for the AES and its members.

The aim of the session is to explore the appropriate use of RCTs in evaluation studies of public policy in Australia. The strategy is to commence a communication process on this key topic between ACE and the evaluation community as represented by the AES. Ideally, this will lead to collaboration between ACE and the AES to improve evaluation practice in Australia.

The Fellows Forum session will commence with a prepared presentation by a senior staff member of ACE explaining its mandate and outlining its approach to including RCTs in evaluation studies. This will be followed by a panel of evaluators who have experience with RCTs to explain how they included RCTs in an evaluation study or where they chose not to include an RCT and the reasons why. They will also explore what they learned from this experience to inform their future evaluation practice. Finally, one or two Fellows will act as discussants, responding to the previous presentations with their thoughts on this issue. The session will be moderated by a Fellow and there will be time for audience members to ask questions of the panel members and discussants.

Moderator:  Prof Rick Cummings, Emeritus Professor Murdoch University, AES Fellow
Key Speaker: Eleanor Williams, Managing Director, Australian Centre for Evaluation
Panelists:  Prof Lisa Cameron, Professional Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne
                       Dr Wendy Jarvie, Adjunct Professor, Public Service Research Group, University of NSW
                       Bruce Cunningham, Assistant Secretary, Employment Evaluation Branch, Commonwealth Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
Commentators:  Prof Patricia Rogers, Former Professor of Public Sector Evaluation, RMIT University, AES Fellow
Scott Bayley, Principal, Scott Bayley Evaluation Service, AES Fellow

Authors: Julie Elliott (Independent Evaluator), Jill Thomas (J.A Thomas & Associates, AU), Martina Donkers (Independent Evaluator, AU)

Mentors and mentees from the AES Group Mentoring Program share rich experiences of group learning, knowledge sharing, and reflective practice, exploring the Wayfinding skills, knowledge, and expertise they have found through the program and the valuable lessons learned.

AES remains committed to mentoring, and this session provides a unique opportunity to hear perspectives across the mentoring spectrum, from Fellows to emerging evaluators, and the ways that sharing our professional practice enhances our work. Since 2021, the AES Group Mentoring Program has been a trailblazer in fostering professional growth and competencies for emerging and mid-career evaluators, enabling mentors and peers to help navigate unfamiliar territories, incorporating various tools and strategies.

Our dynamic panel will discuss how evaluators have adapted their approaches to mentoring and to evaluation practice with the support of the program. It's a session where personal and professional growth intersect and will offer a unique perspective on the transformative power of mentorship.

This discussion is for evaluators who are passionate about learning - both their own and that of other AES members! Whether you're a seasoned professional eager to contribute to your community, an emerging talent or a mid-career evaluator navigating contemporary evaluation ecosystems, this session is for you. Don't miss this opportunity to hear directly from mentors and mentees who value the shared, continuous journey of social learning and adaptation.

Authors: Amy Gullickson (University of Melbourne), Taimur Siddiqi (Victorian Legal Services, AU)

AES in collaboration with learnevaluation.org offers a competency self-assessment to members. The aim to help individuals understand their strengths and plan their learning journey, to help the AES continue to tailor its professional development offerings and develop pathways to professionalisation, and to contribute to ongoing research about evaluation learners. In this session, members of the AES Pathways Committee will briefly summarise the findings from the self-assessment and then invite participants into groups by their discipline and sector to discuss: Which competencies are really core and why? Reporting out from groups will will reveal whether the core competencies differ based on the sectors/background of the evaluators. The follow up discussion will then explore: What do the findings mean for evaluation practice, and teaching and learning? How do they relate to professionalisation? If we want to increase clarity about what good evaluation practice looks like - what are our next steps related to the competencies?

Participants will benefit from reflecting on their own competency self-assessment in relation to the findings and discussion, and discovering how the backgrounds of learners influences their ideas about core competencies. The session findings will be shared with the AES Pathways Committee to inform AES' next steps for the competencies, self-assessment, and ongoing discussion of pathways to professionalisation.