General description:

The purpose of this paper is to describe an evaluation method based on collaboration between University of Applied Sciences and Care home for elderly people, in a R&D project. Modelling was a tool which was used in Caring TV-project in order to reveal (expose) development of learning of stakeholders. 

The focus of modelling was a collaborative development between educational institutions and partnering working life organisations in the context of CaringTV. More specifically, the CaringTV project was designed and executed in collaboration between a Finnish University of Applied Sciences (UAS), a care home, a company offering technical solutions, and university researchers. It was expected that the models produced by the analyses in the different stages would lighten the burden on the participants. 

The theoretical framework of the modelling chosen for this study was developmental evaluation based on activity theory (Engeström, 2001) and Raithels` three types of reflection. Developmental evaluation is based on an interventionist approach developed from the basic ideas of activity theory. It is an approach to the study of transformations and learning in work and organisations where the conceptual models and tools of activity theory are donated to the participants in order to help them work on a problem of practice (Engeström, 2001, 2005, 2007).  Raeithel (1983) describes three types of reflection: centration, decentration and recentration. In the metacognitive reflection, i.e., in centration, a participant/an actor concentrates on himself/herself and his/her performance in any given task. In decentration, it is crucial to ask how the task could be arranged differently, in which case it is important to question the traditional individual learning method and its goal. Decentration helps clarify the working activities, the object of the work and the tools used for the work. In recentration, the participant/actor considers himself/herself as part of a community, as he/she direct his/her attention not only to both a shared task and action and to the wider context of developing these, but also to the internal dynamics of the community. On this level, a shared development task could be expressed in the form of the following question: ‘‘How can we organise collaboration in as flexible a manner as possible?’’ 

Research questions:

How does stakeholder project collaboration      develop during the CaringTV project when applying modelling as a tool for developmental      evaluation? 

How does the developmental evaluation of project stakeholder collaboration by means of modelling promote new kinds of innovative learning and the development of competencies in the collaborating organisations?

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