Toward a Conceptual Understanding of Evaluative Thinking

This chapter offers a retrospective analysis of literature related to evaluative thinking. The study was conducted to improve conceptual understandings of the topic through a systematic review of sources published from 1960 to 2016. Using manual, keyword, and proximity search strategies, the authors identified and thematically coded 220 records to create a conceptual model of evaluative thinking. This conceptual model consists of four key thematic domains (Values, Valuing, Cognition, and Application) that constitute evaluative thinking as reflected in the literature to date. Each is discussed in detail, and the implications of this model for the professionalization of the field and practice of evaluation are considered.