Michelle Hayles, joint appointee with the West Yorkshire Probation Service and Huddersfield University, and Mansoor Kazi, Director of the Centre for Evaluation Studies at Huddersfield University, describe the results of an evaluation project which aimed to assess and improve the quality of evidence of competence provided by practice teachers and students. In place of more common comparative evaluative methods, they adopted a 'single-case' approach, involving the analysis of discrete cases over a specified period. Their results indicate that single-case evaluation is a revealing analytical tool, which can help significantly to enhance probation practice.
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