A Dialogical, Story-Based Evaluation Tool
The Most Significant Change Technique
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12471754 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jessica Dart (Department of Primary Industries, corresponding author), Rick Davies (0000-0002-6889-3314) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 137-155 |
| Publication date | 2003-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Evaluation (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1098-2140 • E-ISSN: 1557-0878 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/109821400302400202 |
| OpenAlex | W4235239557 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 88 |
| References cited | 9 |
The Most Significant Change (MSC) technique is a dialogical, story-based technique. Its primary purpose is to facilitate program improvement by focusing the direction of work towards explicitly valued directions and away from less valued directions. MSC can also make a contribution to summative evaluation through both its process and its outputs. The technique involves a form of continuous values inquiry whereby designated groups of stakeholders search for significant program outcomes and then deliberate on the value of these outcomes in a systematic and transparent manner. To date, MSC has largely been used for the evaluation of international development programs, after having been initially developed for the evaluation of a social development program in Bangladesh (Davies, 1996). This article provides an introduction to MSC and discusses its potential to add to the basket of choices for evaluating programs in developed economies. We provide an Australian case study and outline some of the strengths and weaknesses of the technique. We conclude that MSC can make an important contribution to evaluation practice. Its unusual methodology and outcomes make it ideal for use in combination with other techniques and approaches
Dialogical self · Epistemology · Evaluation methods · Formative assessment · Ideal (ethics · Management science · Mathematics education · Political science · Process (computing · Process management · Program evaluation · Sociology · Strengths and weaknesses · Summative assessment · Theory of change · Value (mathematics · Community and Sustainable Development · Complex Systems and Decision Making · Computer Science · Engineering · Evaluation and Performance Assessment · Psychology · Social Psychology
Safe Birth and Cultural Safety in southern Mexico
Evaluating the health impacts of participation in Australian community arts groups
Beyond the safe and censored
Developing evaluation capacities in integrated care projects
The roles of community nutrition scholars in changing mothers' child feeding, food preparation, and hygiene practices in southern Bangladesh
Evaluating behavioural changes for climate adaptation planning
An analysis of gender inclusion in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene ( Wash ) projects
Using a most significant change approach to evaluate learner-centric outcomes of clinical scholars leadership training program
Representing the values of program participants
Theory-based evaluation of the impact of Master’s programmes in development studies
Remotely and collaboratively evaluating a campus-based therapy dog program during the Covid-19 pandemic
Exploring Forest Therapy as an Adjunct to Treatment as Usual within a Community Health Counselling Service
Slow and steady? Capacity building for participatory governance in local arts development through practitioner-researcher collaboration
Impact Assessment
Narrative-based evaluation demonstrates the value of a higher education professional learning network
Evaluating leadership development using the Most Significant Change technique
Adaptive governance and managing resilience to natural hazards
Re-thinking benefits of community protected areas in Mondulkiri, Cambodia
Developing stories of change
Patient and public involvement cultures and the perceived impact in the vulnerable context of palliative care
The contribution of research for development to the sustainable development goals
Researching Social Protection With Diverse Young People in Crisis Contexts
From knowledge to action
“Once upon a time…” Eliciting energy and behaviour change stories using a fairy tale story spine
Benefits of reflection-based monitoring in action research projects
The Impact of In-Service Education and Training on Teachers’ Learning
Developmental Impact Evaluation for Facilitating Learning in Innovation Networks
Rich Pictures
Evaluating Social Innovations
A Narrative Approach to Developing Standards for Trauma-Informed Peer Support
Six Guiding Principles for Evaluating Mode-2 Strategies for Sustainable Development
Capturing Bhutan's Cultural Uniqueness
Outcome Evidencing
Feminist Evaluation Using Feminist Participatory Action Research
Evaluating a peer-led wellbeing programme for doctors-in-training during the Covid-19 pandemic in Victoria, Australia, using the Most Significant Change technique
The Development of a Questionnaire to Assess Research and Evaluation Capacity-Building
Evaluation Logics in the Third Sector
Feeling things happen”
Building the plane in the air
Exploring Empowerment and Gender Relations in a Sport for Development Program in Papua New Guinea
Capacity Development Evaluation
A most significant change study of the impact of Circle of Security Parenting (COS-P) training on professional practice in an Australia child and family agency
Many Children in the Woods
Bringing the state into the clinic? Incorporating the rapid diagnostic test for malaria into routine practice in Tanzanian primary healthcare facilities
Camino Verde (The Green Way)
Process evaluation of a parent-child communication intervention for adolescent sexual and reproductive health in Uganda
Supporting health promotion practitioners to undertake evaluation for program development
An innovative leadership development initiative to support building everyday resilience in health systems
Good governance for sustainable blue economy in small islands
Harnessing the power of stories
Micro Change Agents for Gender Equality
Beyond Indicators and Success Stories
(Re)Building Home and Community in the Social Housing Sector
Methodological Reflections on Studying Gender‐Sensitive Parliaments Cross‐Nationally
Exploring multiple dimensions of values and valuing
Arts practice and disconnected youth in Australia
A Comparison between the Asset-oriented and Needs-based Community Development Approaches in Terms of Systems Changes
Adolescent School-Based Sex Education
Behind the Numbers
Assessing the ‘true impact’ of development assistance in the G aza S trip and T okelau
The garden of evaluation approaches
Buddhist evaluation
Current Challenges in Development Evaluation
Lessening the unknown
Evaluation through narratives
The need for reflexive evaluation approaches in development cooperation
Evaluation Pragmatics
Monitoring and evaluation for thinking and working politically
Causal mapping for evaluators
Positive thinking e sviluppo locale
Evaluation Field Building in South Asia
Training by Papua New Guinea women, for Papua New Guinea women’
Appreciating the Contribution of Broadband ICT With Rural and Remote Communities
A dialogical appraisal of diasporic women’s work to impact change in Iran
Teacher perspectives on factors facilitating implementation of whole school approaches for resolving conflict
Creating a culture of healing in multiethnic communities
Measuring outcomes experienced by users of community services—The development of the community services outcomes tree and the associated survey template
A pragmatist approach to transdisciplinarity in sustainability research
The ParentingWell Learning Collaborative Feasibility Study
Most Significant Change Approach
Communities for children
I want to touch the sky
The most significant lessons about the Most Significant Change technique
Most Significant Change in conflict settings
The transformational possibilities of a peer education program to address child marriage in Nepal
Supporting Individuals With an Acquired Brain Injury
The Socio-Pedagogical Dynamics of Religious Knowledge in Religious Education
We're on the edge
Values in Evaluation and Social Research
An evolutionary approach to facilitating organisational learning
Teaching People to Fish? Building the Evaluation Capability of Public Sector Organizations
Choosing Criteria to Judge Program Success
Reflections on the Use of Narrative in Evaluation
Toward an Integrative Framework for Evaluation Practice
| Unique citing works | 88 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,19 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2026 (22) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 88 |