Utilizing Evaluation Evidence to Enhance Professional Practice1

The purpose of this article is to re-examine the current use of what is to count as evaluation evidence to inform professional practice. The provision of evaluation evidence to inform decision making has long been an aspiration, albeit with varying degrees of success. However the need to re-examine the utility of this endeavour has arisen in the contemporary culture of evidence-based policy and practice. The main argument of the article is that the politically favoured approach to this task fails to recognize the holistic nature of professional practice and disregards the complexity of professional decision making and action. The article offers a critique of the dominant model of evidence-based in relation to the nature of professional practice and argues that it is time to reassert the value of qualitative methodologies to maximize the utilization of evaluation evidence by professional practitioners