Activity: Pathway Model Peer Review
This activity is particularly appropriate when multiple programs within an organization are simultaneously working through the SEP. Peer reviews are especially valuable to the logic and pathway model development process. Because program staff are typically characterizing their programs from an internal perspective, they may omit elements that they take for granted or know implicitly (it is easy to fill in pieces which may be missing from the model with logic inside one’s own head). Peers typically have the benefit of being external to the program and can therefore better judge the ability of the model to communicate a clear picture of the program’s logic. Peer reviews may also benefit the reviewer. As reviewers begin to identify weaknesses in a peer’s model, they may become better able to identify similar problems in their own model. This activity is designed to be used with poster-sized pathway models displayed on the wall (using large paper and index cards, or large-format printouts of a PowerPoint model for example). Each program’s description should also be displayed next to the model. Reviewers use a structured guide (see sticker actvities in the Guide secion of Netway) and a set of stickers to identify common pitfalls of model development. The stickers, which use pictures to help identify these pitfalls (a leaping frog for leaps in logic, a fence to identify a boundary question, etc.), allow both the reviewer and reviewed to quickly identify what may otherwise seem like an ambiguous lack of clarity. Peer reviewers are also encouraged to write open-ended comments as necessary, and discuss all of their feedback with the recipient at the end of the activity.