Michael John Scriven (; born 1928) is a British-born Australian polymath and academic philosopher, best known for his contributions to the theory and practice of evaluation.
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Biography
Scriven was born in the UK and grew up in Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, Australia. He holds BSc (1948) and MS (1950) degrees in mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
from the University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...
, where he was in residence at Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
from 1946, winning an entrance scholarship. He then completed a doctorate in philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
from the University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
(1956).
Scriven is a past president of the American Educational Research Association
The American Educational Research Association (AERA, pronounced "A-E-R-A") is a professional organization representing education researchers in the United States and around the world. AERA's mission is to advance knowledge about education and p ...
and the American Evaluation Association
The American Evaluation Association (AEA) is a professional association for evaluators and those with a professional interest in the field of evaluation, including practitioners, faculty, students, funders, managers, and government decision-make ...
. He is also an editor and co-founder of the Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation. He is currently a distinguished professor at Claremont Graduate University
The Claremont Graduate University (CGU) is a private, all-graduate research university in Claremont, California. Founded in 1925, CGU is a member of the Claremont Colleges which includes five undergraduate (Pomona College, Claremont McKenna Co ...
in California.
He has spent most of his career in the United States. He became a full Professor at the age of 32. His major appointments were:
*Swarthmore College (Assistant Professor, 1956–60)
*Indiana University (Professor of Philosophy, 1960-1966)
*University of California, Berkeley (Professor of Philosophy and later of Education 1966–78)
*University of San Francisco (Professor, 1978–82)
*University of Western Australia (Professor of Education 1982–89)
*Pacific Graduate School of Psychology (1989-1992)
*Western Michigan University (1994-5, 2004–07)
*Claremont Graduate University (1997–2002 and 2007-)
*University of Auckland (Professor of Evaluation 2003-4)
Scholarly contributions
Scriven has made significant contributions in the fields of philosophy, psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
, critical thinking
Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to form a judgement. The subject is complex; several different definitions exist, which generally include the rational, skeptical, and unbiased analysis ...
, mathematics, and, most notably, evaluation
Evaluation is a
systematic determination and assessment of a subject's merit, worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of standards. It can assist an organization, program, design, project or any other intervention or initiative ...
theory and the establishment of evaluation as a transdiscipline. Scriven's work in education has influenced the work of many scholars, including that of Robert E. Stake Robert E. Stake (born December 18, 1927) is a Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Stake is a native of Adams, Nebraska. After earning a PhD in Psychometrics at Princeton University in 1958, he assumed the ...
, Ernest R. House, Benjamin Bloom
Benjamin Samuel Bloom (February 21, 1913 – September 13, 1999) was an American educational psychologist who made contributions to the classification of educational objectives and to the theory of mastery learning. He is particularly noted ...
, and Gene V Glass
Gene V Glass (born June 19, 1940) is an American statistician and researcher working in educational psychology and the social sciences. According to the science writer Morton Hunt, he coined the term "meta-analysis" and illustrated its first use ...
.
He has produced over 400 scholarly publications and has served on the editorial review boards of 42 journals.
Awards
Scriven has been awarded numerous awards, including:
* Lazarfeld Prize, awarded by the American Evaluation Association for outstanding research contributions to the field of evaluation (1986)
* Donald Campbell Award of the Policy Studies Association (citation reads "...as an outstanding methodological innovator in public policy studies") (1996)
* Wilbert J. McKeachie award for lifetime contribution to the study of faculty evaluation and development, awarded by the Special Interest Group on Faculty Evaluation and Development of the American Educational Research Association (1996+)
* Honorary Fellow of the American Education Research Association (AERA) for lifetime contributions to education research (1996+)
* Jason Millman award for lifetime contribution to evaluation, awarded by CREATE (Coalition for Research and Evaluation on Teacher Education) (1996+)
* Robert Ingle award for outstanding service to the American Evaluation Association (1996+)
* Award for Lifetime Contribution to the Teaching of Philosophy, American Association of Teachers of Philosophy, Toledo, Ohio (2004)
*Member, Academy of Social Sciences in Australia
* Honorary Member, Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
, Theta chapter of Michigan (2006)
* D.Ed. (Honoris causa) University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...
(2013)
* Festschrift volume: S. Donaldson (Ed.) (2013) The future of evaluation in society: A tribute to Michael Scriven. Information Age Publishing.
Listings
* Who's Who in America
* Who's Who in Australia
* American Men of Education
* International Scholars Directory, The Writers Directory
* Directory of American Scholars
* Dictionary of International Biography
Major publications
*Moncrieff, W. & Scriven, M. (1956). The gas turbine in automobile design. Minnesota. Privately published.
* Feigl, H., & Scriven, M. (eds.) (1956). The foundations of science and the concepts of psychology and psychoanalysis. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 1. University of Minnesota.
* Feigl, H., Maxwell, G., & Scriven, M. (eds.) (1958). Concepts, theories, and the mind-body problem. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 2. University of Minnesota.
* Feigl, H., Maxwell, G., & Scriven, M. (eds.) (1962). Scientific explanation, space, and time. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 3. University of Minnesota.
*Scriven, M. (1964). Computers and comprehension. RAND monograph.
*Scriven, M. (1965). Applied logic: An introduction to scientific method. Behavioral Research Laboratories.
*Scriven, M. (1966, reprinted). Primary philosophy. McGraw-Hill.
*Moore, W., & Scriven, M. (eds.) (1966). Collected papers of Eugene R. Wigner. Indiana University.
*Scriven, M. (ed.) (1966). Morality. Social Science Education Consortium.
* Tyler, R. W., Gagne, R. M., & Scriven, M. (Eds.). 1967. Perspectives of Curriculum Evaluation. American Educational Research Association Monograph Series on Curriculum Evaluation, Vol. 1. Rand McNally.
*Scriven, M. (1970). Philosophy of science. NETCHE.
*Scriven, M. (1974). Evaluation: A study guide for educational administrators. Nova University.
*Scriven, M. (1976). Reasoning. McGraw-Hill.
*Scriven, M. & Roth, J. (1977, reprinted).Evaluation thesaurus. EdgePress and Sage.
*Davis, B., Thomas, S. & Scriven, M. (1981). The evaluation of composition instruction. EdgePress (for the Carnegie Corporation).
*Scriven, M. (1981). The logic of evaluation. EdgePress.
*Manus, S. & Scriven, M. (1982). How to buy a word processor: Electronic typewriters, personal computers, and dedicated systems. Alfred Publishing Company.
*Scriven, M. (1987). Word magic: Evaluating and selecting word processing. Wadsworth and van Nostrand.
*Scriven, M. (1987). Theory and practice of evaluation. EdgePress.
*McConney, A., Scriven, M., Stronge, J., Stufflebeam, D., & Webster, W. (1995). Toward a unified model: The foundations of educational personnel evaluation. Center for Research on Educational Accountability and Teacher Evaluation.
*Madaus, G., Scriven,M., & Stufflebeam, D. (Eds.). (1983).Evaluation Models.Kluwer-Nijhoff Publishing.
*Scriven, M. (1991). Evaluation Thesaurus. Sage.
*Scriven, M. (1993). Hard won lessons in program evaluation. Jossey-Bass.
*Fisher, A. & Scriven, M. (1997). Critical thinking: Its definition and assessment. UK: Centre for Research in Critical Thinking, and EdgePress.
*Donaldson, S.I. & Scriven, M. (Eds.). (2003). Evaluating social programs and problems: Visions for the new millennium. Erlbaum.
*Coryn C.L.S. and M. Scriven (eds.) (2008). Reforming the Evaluation of Research: New Directions for Evaluation, Number 118. Jossey-Bass.
Scriven number
In 2012, an article published in the Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation posed the necessity of a Scriven number. Similar to an Erdős number
The Erdős number () describes the "collaborative distance" between mathematician Paul Erdős and another person, as measured by authorship of mathematical papers. The same principle has been applied in other fields where a particular individual ...
, a Scriven number describes a person's degree of separation from Dr. Scriven through published collaborations directly with him or with others who have collaborated with him. Michael Scriven holds the unique Scriven number of 0 while any persons publishing directly with him hold a Scriven number of 1. In addition, those who have published with those individuals who have directly published with Dr. Scriven hold a Scriven number of 2. This algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...
ic format continues indefinitely. For those published with multiple papers with paths to Dr. Scriven, the shortest path
In graph theory, the shortest path problem is the problem of finding a path between two vertices (or nodes) in a graph such that the sum of the weights of its constituent edges is minimized.
The problem of finding the shortest path between tw ...
will serve as the Scriven number. This type of number is hypothesized to help centralize the field of evaluation
Evaluation is a
systematic determination and assessment of a subject's merit, worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of standards. It can assist an organization, program, design, project or any other intervention or initiative ...
.
Notes
External links
Michael Scriven's home page
* . Hosts several videos and lectures, as well as dozens of papers.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scriven, Michael
1928 births
Living people
People educated at Trinity College (University of Melbourne)
University of Melbourne alumni
Claremont Graduate University faculty
Philosophers of science
Educational psychologists
British emigrants to Australia