Evaluation
By now , you should have identified that your problem is mobile phone use by drivers . At least , that ’ s what we ’ ll assume for now , but the basic message here applies to whatever problem you might be encountering . At this point , you should already be thinking about evaluation . This might sound a little hasty , but the problem you have identified will already be shaping the kinds of answers that you want to be able to provide ( to yourself , to colleagues , to managers , to funders ).
With the problem identified , we need to move towards articulating your aims and objectives . Do you want to know if you have reduced offending , or reduced ‘ use ’, or filled a gap in knowledge , or changed attitudes , or done any of these things in respect of a particular group of people ? How will you know the answers to these questions ? Ultimately , it is likely that we want to reduce road death and injury , but it ’ s unlikely that we will ever be able to directly measure our contribution to that , not least because it is impossible to measure what doesn ’ t happen ( if we prevent a collision , for example ). But it ’ s also difficult to figure out if a change is the direct result of what we did , as opposed to a range of things that may have impacted on the same people at the same time we were trying to influence them .
Evaluation is essential as without it you won ’ t know if your approach worked or ( importantly ) how it worked . When designed well , evaluation can tell us what we should carry on doing , what we need to do a little differently , and perhaps even what we should stop doing completely ¹. For example , we might think that by training drivers more thoroughly we would make them better drivers – but discover that we were actually only increasing their confidence and belief that they can handle risky situations ( see the theories on p19-22 for why this might be the case ). A lot of what we do may have an intuitive appeal , but just because we ’ ve always done it that way doesn ’ t mean we should continue doing it . At some point we are going to have to show , understandably , that what we are doing is working .
Evaluation is often essential for arguing for resources - or arguing that we should not lose the resources that we have .
¹ RoSPA ( nd ). Road Safety Evaluation . Available from : http :// www . roadsafetyevaluation . com / helpandguidance / introduction / evaluation .
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