4-H ARTS AND COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM EVALUATION
Parent Interview
Parent interviews are being conducted in order to include parents’ perspectives about the value of
the 4-H Arts and Communication Program. We want to hear directly from parents, in their own
words.
Desired completion date: June 15, 2006
Recommendation: Interview 5-7 parents of active arts and communication participants.
Before the interview: Make a list of the arts and communication activities the youth has been
involved in over the years. Use this list during the interview to help the parent focus on the
different activities his/her child was involved in and their value. FYI - attached is the list of all
possible activities that we included in the mail survey. If you don’t have participation data for
the youth available locally, please find out from the parent.
The interviews may be completed in-person or by phone. If you have someone help you with the
interviews, please discuss together the questions, how the interview will be conducted, the way
you will ask the questions, what information you are trying to obtain, how to record the data, etc.
Try to ensure that you conduct the interviews in as similar a fashion as possible.
Feel free to include other questions or reword the questions to better suit your interviewing
situation. However, please do cover all the questions provided.
Interviews like this depend upon “digging deeper” to get really meaningful information – to fully
capture the individual’s opinions and insights. This is called probing. It demands creativity in
reframing the question to get the information you want. For some help with this, see Tip Sheet
on Probing in Interviews (attached).
There are three possibilities for recording interview data:
(1) Take notes during the interview. Use a pad or clipboard and take as many notes as
possible during the interview, without jeopardizing good rapport or asking and listening
skills. Remember to cover all the questions. As soon as the interview is over, spend time
to fill in your notes and add your observations. Please type the final copy so that you can
send it to us for analysis.
(2) Work with a partner – one person asks the questions and the other person takes notes,
writing down as much of the conversation as possible. As soon as the interview is over,
spend time to go over the notes together, check understandings, fill in any gaps and add
observations. Type up the final copy.
(3) Tape record the interview. Ask the person if it is okay for you to tape the interview.
Explain that you’d like to tape the interview so that you can concentrate on asking the
questions and listening and will have what the person says correctly recorded.
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Immediately after the interview, write down the things that jumped out at you, your
observations and any key points or quotes you remember. Later, you can listen to the
tape, type an abbreviated transcript with bullets of the key points, summaries of
responses, and quotes that seem pertinent and meaningful.
Try to capture full quotes that illustrate the person’s comments. We may want to include these
later in the report.
Once you have completed all the interviews, send all your data to Ellen. Please keep all data
together by individual. This includes the typed responses/notes from the interview along with
the parent’s name, county, gender and ethnicity. Keep one copy of everything you send. Ellen
and/or Matt will call you to help analyze and interpret the data. Your data also will be combined
with parent interviews from the other counties for inclusion in the statewide report.
Send all parent interview data to Ellen preferably via email:
ellen.taylor-powell@ces.uwex.edu
Or,
609 N. Lake Street
432 North Lake St
Madison, WI 53706
Please send all data by June 16, 2006 to Ellen.
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Date:___________________________
County: ____________________________
Name of parent: _______________________________________
Gender: _________
Ethnicity: ___________
Age of child(children):
PARENT INTERVIEW
Hello:
This is __________. We are conducting an evaluation of our Arts and Communication Program
to see what our youth gain from this program. This is part of a large statewide evaluation effort.
We’d like to hear from parents as well as the youth so I am hoping you will answer a few
questions for me. We will combine your responses with those from others so you won’t be
identified. We are also conducting a survey and interviewing alumni. All these data will be
analyzed and used to document the impact of the 4-H Arts and Communication Program in
Wisconsin.
May I continue with my questions? Or, would another time be more convenient. It will
probably take about 15 minutes of your time.
Review with the parent the list of arts and communication activities that the child has been
involved in over the years. Ensure that the parent is thinking about these arts and
communication activities, not all or other 4-H experiences, when answering your questions.
Interview questions:
1. To get started, we are interested in knowing about how much time your child spent/spends in
each of these activities:
How many years did he/she participate in each activity/project? (length of
participation) – in which projects?
b. Was it seasonal or year-round involvement? If seasonal, which months?
c. On average, about how much time – how many hours per week, on average - would
you say your child spends in these various activities?
a.
[You might use a recording form such as the following to record these answers.]
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Recording chart:
Name of
Activity/project
No of years
participating
Seasonal or yearround
Average #
hours/week
2. Which of the projects/activities that your child has participated in seemed to provide the
greatest benefit for your child?
a. What were the specific benefits that you felt your child got from that activity/project?
(e.g., gained knowledge, skills (leadership, time management, listening, decision making,
organizational skill); new friends, self-confidence, opportunity to express himself, etc. –
probe to find out what specific knowledge, skills, etc. the child gained; or how selfconfidence has increased, etc. )
b. In terms of skills, which of the following skills do you think you child developed as a
result of participating in the 4-H Arts and Communication program (Read each one and
record Yes (Y) or No (N) and any comments the parent may add.
i. leadership _______
ii. decision making ______
iii. public speaking/presentation/demonstration______
iv. listening _____
v. ability to work with others________
vi. responsibility _______
vii. time management ________
viii. how to talk to adults _______
ix. how to lead an activity ________
x. self-confidence ________
xi. organizational skills _______
c. What about the activity/project made it possible for the child to gain that opportunity/have
that experience?
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3. Why do you think your child likes the 4-H arts and communication projects?
Probe for why the child comes/what the child gets out of participating: friendships,
learning from adults, learning from other youth, choice, competition, performance
opportunities, teaching opportunities if not mentioned. For instance, you can probe
using such questions as…
How important have opportunities to perform been for your child?
Differentiate among projects if necessary.
4. Does your child participate in these types of arts and communication activities elsewhere –
school, church, other clubs, private lessons, etc. ?
Probe to find out if the youth seeks lots of these types of arts and communication
activities, both in and out of 4-H, or are they just involved through 4-H – and why?
5. Has your child participated in other arts and communication activities provided through the
school, church, other clubs, community, private lessons? Yes – No
If YES,
a. How many, or what types, of these other activities has your child been involved in over
the years?
b. In your opinion, how are 4-H arts and communication experiences different, if at all,
from the arts and communication activities that are available in other places (school,
church, community, private lessons, etc.)?
Probing question: What is specifically unique about 4-H?
6. If another parent asked you why his or her child should participate in 4-H arts and
communications projects, what would you tell them?
7. Is there anything else you’d like to say about the 4-H Arts and Communication Program?
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Activity List
Which 4-H Arts and Communications activity have you participated in? (Check all that apply)
___ Photography
___ Videography
___ Ornaments
___Weaving
___Candle making
___Jewelry making
___Celebrate Art
___Palette of Fun
___Art in your future
___Leathercraft
___Stencil painting
___Tin punch
___Block printing
VISUAL ARTS
___Metal enameling
___Felt & furs
___Drawing/painting
___Plastercraft
___Ceramics
___Cross stitching
___Fiber arts
___Needlepoint
___Primitive arts
___Glasswork
___Tie dying
___Macrame
___String/wire art
___Rubber stamping
___Calligraphy
___Sand sculpting
___Basketry
___Clay sculpting
___Print making
___Pottery
___Rosemaking
___Tole painting
___Liquid embroidery
___Mosaics
___Rug hooking
___Plastics
___Folk arts
___Dance
___Theater acting
PERFORMING ARTS
___Theater puppetry
___Clowning
___Theater stagecraft
___Puppetry
___Theater clowning
___Juggling
___Demonstrations
___Speaking
COMMUNICATIONS
___Communications
___Posters
___Creative writing
___Sign language
___Wood burning
___Decorative boxes
___Wearable art
___Textile painting
___Paper art
___Wood art
___Decorative wreath
___Punch quilt
___Soap making
___Seed art
___Mine
___Yo-Yo
___Music
___Speaking
OTHER ARTS PROJECTS
___Scrapbooking
___Decoupage
___Collections
___Computers
___Other: Please list ____________________________________________
COUNTY EVENTS
___Music Fest
___Art Fest
___Chorus/choir Fest
___Demonstration
___Drama Fest
___Art & Craft Fest
___Band Fest
___Creative writing
___Speaking Fest
Other: Please list ___________________________________________________________
___ Art team
STATE TEAMS
___Drama company
___Art camp
STATE EVENTS
___Art leadership lab
___Showcase singers
___Foto follies
Other: Please list____________________________________________________________
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TIP SHEET
Probing in Interviews□
Often, we want or need more information than we get when we ask a question
during an interview. Probing is asking follow-up questions when we do not fully
understand a response, when answers are vague or ambiguous or when we want to
obtain more specific or in-depth information.
For example:
Interview question: “What did you like best about the program?”
Youth: “Everything was great.”
Probe 1: “What was one thing that stood out?”
Youth: “I got to try different things.”
Probe 2: “What things did you try?”
Youth: “I got to try playing the piano.”
Probe 3: “What did you like about playing the piano?”
Youth: “It made me feel like I could do this…I’ve always wanted to try the
piano but haven’t had the chance and I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it. I
thought it would be too hard for me but I could do it…I want to try again.”
In this example, it took four probes to find out what the youth really liked best, why
and what this meant to him. This is the kind of information you want so it is
important to follow up until you get information that provides meaningful detail.
In qualitative interviewing, probes cannot be planned in advance. It is impossible
to know what relevant issue the person might raise and how you might need to
probe to learn more. However, it is helpful to be familiar with probing and some
general ways to probe.
For example,
 Could you please tell me more about…
 I’m not quite sure I understood … Could you tell me about that some
more?
 I’m not certain what you mean by… Could you give me some
examples?
 Could you tell me more about your thinking on that?
 You mentioned….Could you tell me more about that? What stands out
in your mind about that?
 This is what I thought I heard…Did I understand you correctly?
 So what I hear you saying is…”
 Can you give me an example of…
 What makes you feel that way?
 What are some of your reasons for liking it?
 You just told me about…. I’d also like to know about….
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Probing questions often begin with “what” or “how” because they invite more
detail. Questions that begin with “Do you…” or “Are you…” invite personal
reflection. “Why” questions can be problematic. They may put the respondent on
the defensive or result in little useful information and require additional probing.
Example: “Why did you do that?” “..Because I wanted to”. If possible, try to
replace “why” with “what”. With any probe, watch for leading questions or bias in
your follow-
□
Liberally adapted from Camino, L, Zeldin, S., Payne-Jackson, A. 1995. Basics of
qualitative interviews and focus groups. Center for Youth Development and Policy
Research. Academy for Educational Development. Washington, D.C.
See also, OERL. Online Evaluation Resource Library. Developing an interview.
http://oerl.sri.com/module/mod6/m6_p2c.html
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