Michael Quinn Patton

Michael Quinn Patton provides a revised framework for site-visit standards to distinguish between those that provide minimal quality control and those that might ensure excellence.

This comment, written by Dean Ornish and published on the Edge.org blog What scientific idea is ready for retirement, argues that larger studies do not always equate to more rigorous or definitive results and

This statement from the European Evaluation Society (EES) argues that randomised control trials are not necessarily the best way to ensure a rigorous or scientific impact evaluation assessment (IE) for development and development aid.

This comment from the American Evaluation Association (AEA) was written in response to a US Department of Education proposed priority for evaluating educational programs using scientifically based methods.

​You can't see the Earth as a globe unless you get at least twenty thousand miles away from it.  On December 7, 1972, the first photograph was taken of the whole Earth from space.  That photo became known as The Bl

Designating something a “best practice” is a marketing ploy, not a scientific conclusion. Calling something “best” is a political and ideological assertion dressed up in research-sounding terminology.

This week's post is an abbreviated version of a "rumination" from the

Researchers and evaluators are admonished to stay rational and independent.

The 4th edition of Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods by Michael Quinn Patton will be published in mid-November, 2014. A new feature is one personal “rumination” in each chapter.

Last week Michael Quinn Patton shared the first five of his 

Over the next two weeks, Michael Quinn Patton joins us to give his top ten trends in qualitative evaluation over the last decade. This week, he sets out the first five.