In this study, the researchers created a development-oriented evaluation framework, which provides constructive feedback on the personal growth of volunteers. To assess the process by which a volunteer becomes a competent practitioner, a competence taxonomy with five levels of attainment was adopted.
Findings
The competence of volunteers could be measured by the volunteers' attainments in three areas: degree of commitment, acquisition of knowledge, and utilization of skills. A competence-based evaluation framework of volunteer progress ensures that volunteers receive structured and constructive feedback.
Applications
The proposed development-oriented evaluation tool will help keep track of volunteers' progress and encourage the development of personalized strategies according to each volunteer's needs. It will also be informative to the quality improvement of volunteer services.
AllenN. J. (1987) The role of social and organizational factors in the evaluation of volunteer programs. Evaluation and Program Planning10(3): 257–262.. doi:10.1016/0149-7189(87)90037-1.
2.
Bablouzian, L., Freedman, E., & Wolski, K. (1997). Evaluation of a community based childhood injury prevention program. Injury Prevention, 3, 4–16.
3.
BardachE.LesserC. (1996) Accountability in human services collaboratives–For what? and to whom?Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory6(2): 197–224.
4.
BarthR. P. (1991) An experimental evaluation of in-home child-abuse prevention services. Child Abuse & Neglect15(4): 363–375.
5.
BennettJ.KennedyD. (2001) Practical work at the upper high school level: The evaluation of a new model of assessment. International Journal of Science Education23(1): 97–110.
6.
BensonM. J.SporakowskiM. J.StremmelA. J. (1992) Writing reviews of family literature—Guiding students using bloom taxonomy of cognitive objectives. Family Relations41(1): 65–69.. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/585395.
7.
BlackB.DiNittoD. (1994) Volunteers who work with survivors of rape and battering: Motivations, acceptance, satisfaction, length of service, and gender differences. Journal of Social Service Research20(1/2): 73–97.
8.
BloomB. S.EnglehartM. D.FurstE. J.HillW. H.KrathwohlD. R. (1956) Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook 1: Cognitive domain, New York, NY: Longmans.
9.
BogoM. (1998) The practice of field instruction in social work: Theory and process, 2nd ed. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
10.
BoothM. (1994) Cognition in history—A British perspective. Educational Psychologist29(2): 61–69.
11.
CartC. (1991) How performance happens (and how to help it happen better). Performance & Instruction30(8): 26–30.
12.
ChanC. C.LuiP.ChowC.ChengJ.WongT. (2002) An unintentional child injury surveillance study in Hong Kong. Report submitted to the Health Services Research Committee, Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Childhood Injury Prevention and Research Association (CIPRA).
13.
ChittumW. R.JohnsonK.ChittumJ. M.GuercioJ. M.McMorrowM. J. (1996) Road to awareness: An individualized training package for increasing knowledge and comprehension of personal deficits in persons with acquired brain injury. Brain Injury10(10): 763–776.
14.
ClaxtonG. (1990) Teaching to learn: A direction for education, London, UK: Cassell.
15.
CnaanR.HandyF.WadsworthM. (1996) Defining who is a volunteer: Conceptual and empirical considerations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly25(3): 364–383.
16.
CnaanR. A.CascioT. A. (1998) Performance and commitment: Issues in management of volunteers in human service organizations. Journal of Social Service Research24(3/4): 1–37.
17.
CnaanR. A.JonesK. H.DickinA.SalomonM. (2011) Estimating giving and volunteering: New ways to measure the phenomena. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly40(3): 497–525.
18.
Dall'AlbaG.SandbergJ. (1996) Educating for competence in professional practice. Instructional Science24(6): 411–437.
19.
Department of Health, Hong Kong SAR Government (2002) Department of health annual report, 2000-2001, Hong Kong: Department of Health.
20.
DipI. I.BunchG. (1998) Competencies of basic surgical trainees. Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England80(1): 14–16. Retrieved from http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/9797580.
21.
DugganA.WindhamA.McFarlaneE.FuddyL.RohdeC.BuchbinderS. (2000) Hawaii's healthy start program of home visiting for at-risk families: Evaluation of family identification, family engagement, and service delivery. Pediatrics105(1): 250–259. Retrieved from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/105/Supplement_2/250.full.html.
22.
EbrahimA. (2003) Accountability in practice: Mechanisms for NGOs. World Development31(5): 813–829.
23.
EllisonM. L. (1996) Assessing student progress in field practica. Journal of Social Work Education32(3): 421–424. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23043004.
24.
ErautM. (1998) Concepts of competence. Journal of Interprofessional Care12(2): 127–139.
25.
FreedmanE. (1985) The importance of feedback in clinical supervision: Implications for direct practice. The Clinical Supervisor3(1): 5–26.
26.
Galindo-KuhnR.GuzleyR. M. (2001) The volunteer satisfaction index: Construct definition, measurement, development, and validation. Journal of Social Service Research28(1): 45–68.
27.
GoncziA. (1994) Competency based assessment in the professions in Australia. Assessment in Education1(1): 27–44.
28.
GrantT. M.ErnstC. C.StreissguthA. P. (1999) Intervention with high-risk alcohol and drug-abusing mothers: Administrative strategies of the Seattle model of paraprofessional advocacy. Journal of Community Psychology27(1): 1–18.
29.
GrundyS. (1987) Curriculum: Product or praxis?, London, UK: Falmer Press.
30.
GuttmanE.EisikovitsZ.MaluccioA. N. (1988) Enriching social work supervision from the competence perspective. Journal of Social Work Education24(3): 278–288. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23042868.
31.
HackmanJ. R.WagemanR. (1995) Total quality management: Empirical, conceptual, and practical issues. Administrative Science Quarterly40(2): 309–342. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/2393640.
32.
HagerP.GoncziA. (1996) What is competence?Medical Teacher18(1): 15–18.
33.
HalpernR. (1992) Issues of program design and implementation. In: LarnerM.HalpernR.HarkavyO. (eds) Fair start for children: Lessons learned from seven demonstration projects, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, pp. 198–217.
34.
HancockG. R. (1994) Cognitive-complexity and the comparability of multiple-choice and constructed-response test formats. Journal of Experimental Education62(2): 143–157.
35.
HauensteinA. D. (1998) A conceptual framework for educational objectives: A holistic approach to traditional taxonomies, Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
36.
HealyK. (2002) Managing human services in a market environment: What role for social workers?British Journal of Social Work32(5): 527–540.
37.
HoeferR. (2000) Accountability in action? Program evaluation in nonprofit human service agencies. Nonprofit Management and Leadership11(2): 167–177.
38.
HustinxL.CnaanR.HandyF. (2010) Navigating theories of volunteering: A hybrid map for a complex phenomenon. Journal of the Theory of Social Behaviour40(4): 410–434.
39.
HustinxL.HandyF. (2009) Where do I belong? Volunteer attachment in a complex organization. Administration in Social Work33(2): 202–220.
40.
KleinW. C.BloomM. (1995) Practice wisdom. Social Work40(6): 799–807.
41.
KnechtK. T. (2001) Assessing cognitive skills of pharmacy students in a biomedical sciences module using a classification of multiple-choice item categories according to Bloom's taxonomy. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education65(4): 324–334.
42.
KrathwohlD. R.BloomB. S.MasiaB. B. (1964) Taxonomy of educational objectives. The classification of educational goals. Handbook 2: Affective domain, New York, NY: David McKay Co. Inc.
43.
LattingJ. K. (1992) Giving corrective feedback: A decisional analysis. Social Work37(5): 424–430.
44.
LemieuxC. M. (2002) Teaching for professional learning: Peer review, self-evaluation, and the problem of grading. Arete25(2): 58–70.
45.
LesureK. B.FrostJ. A.WilliamsR. L. (1993) Evaluating student-achievement with a relational database. Behavior Research Methods Instruments & Computers25(2): 298–300.
46.
MartinezT. A.McMullinS. L. (2004) Factors affecting decisions to volunteer in nongovernmental organizations. Environment and Behavior36(1): 112–126.
47.
MeijsL.BrudneyJ. (2007) Winning volunteer scenarios: The souls of a new machine. The International Journal of Volunteer AdministrationXXIV(6): 68–79.
48.
MitchellL. (1989) The definition of standards and their assessment. In: BurkeJ. W. (eds) Competency based education and training, London, UK: Falmer Press, pp. 54–65.
49.
NeubertM. J.CadyS. H. (2001) Program commitment: A multi-study longitudinal field investigation of its impact and antecedents. Personnel Psychology54(2): 421–448.
50.
NormanI. J.WatsonR.MurrellsT.CalmanL.RedfernS. (2002) The validity and reliability of methods to assess the competence to practice of pre-registration nursing and midwifery students. International Journal of Nursing Studies39(2): 133–145.
51.
PattiR. J. (2009) The handbook of human service management, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
52.
PerlethM. (1998) Fundamental clinical competencies: Neglected aim in medical education?Medizinische Klinik93(6): 381–387.
53.
RethansJ. J.NorciniJ. J.Baron-MaldonadoM.BlackmoreD.JollyB. C.LaDucaT.SouthgateL. H. (2002) The relationship between competence and performance: Implications for assessing practice performance. Medical Education36(10): 901–909.
54.
RogersM. R.PonterottoJ. G. (1997) Development of the multicultural school psychology counseling competency scale. Psychology in the Schools34(3): 211–217.
55.
RogersS. J. (1991) Ten ways to work more effectively with volunteer mediators. Negotiation Journal7(2): 201–211.
56.
RoundsT. J. (1997) Evaluation of a community-based home visiting program for low income families. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences57(8-A): 3396.
57.
RoyseD.ThyerB.PadgettD. (2009) Program evaluation: An introduction, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
StepputatA. (1995) Administration of volunteer program. In: ConnorsT. D. (eds) The volunteer management handbook, New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 156–186.
60.
StevensonJ. F.FlorinP.MillsD. S.AndradeM. (2002) Building evaluation capacity in human service organizations: A case study. Evaluation and Program Planning25(3): 233–243.
61.
StevensonK. M.LeungP.CheungK.-F. M. (1992) Competence-based evaluation of interviewing skills in child sexual abuse cases. Social Work Research & Abstracts28(3): 11–16.
62.
StromR.StromS. (1999) Establishing school volunteer programs. Child and Youth Services20(1/2): 175–188.
63.
TaggartA. V.ShortS. D.BarclayL. (2000) ‘She has made me feel human again’: An evaluation of a volunteer home-based visiting project for mothers. Health & Social Care in the Community8(1): 1–8.
64.
TsuiM. S.CheungF. C. H. (2004) Gone with the wind: The impacts of managerialism on human services. The British Journal of Social Work34(3): 437–442.
65.
TsuiM. S.CheungF. C. H. (2009) Social work administration revisited: A re-examination of concepts, context, and content. Journal of Social Work9(2): 148–157.
66.
TsuiM. S.CheungF. C. H.GellisZ. D. (2004) In search of an optimal model for board-executive relationships in voluntary human service organizations. International Social Work47(2): 169–186.
67.
UtterbackJ.HeymanS. R. (1984) An examination of methods in evaluation of volunteer programs. Evaluation and Program Planning7(3): 229–235.
68.
WalkerP. (2002) Understanding accountability: Theoretical models and their implications for social service organizations. Social Policy & Administration36(1): 62–75.
69.
WallerM. A.BrownB.WhittleB. (1999) Mentoring as a bridge to positive outcomes for teen mothers and their children. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal16(6): 467–480.
70.
WatsonR.StimpsonA.ToppingA.PorockD. (2002) Clinical competence assessment in nursing: A systematic review of the literature. Journal of Advanced Nursing39(5): 421–431.
71.
WhitfieldD. (1994) Toward an integrated approach to improving multicultural counselor education. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development22(4): 239–252.
WilsonJ.MusickM. (1997) Who cares? Towards an integrated theory of volunteer work. American Sociological Review62(5): 694–713. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2657355.
74.
WinningA. (1993) Vocational education and training in Australia. Education and Training35(3): 9–13.
75.
WolfA. (1989) Can competence and knowledge mix. In: BurkeJ. W. (eds) Competency based education and training, London, UK: Falmer Press.
76.
WolfA. (1995) Competence-based assessment, Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
77.
YarbroughD.ShulhaL.HopsonR.CaruthersF. (2011) The program evaluation standards, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Volunteer Evaluation-20130127.
