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. 1 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. 2 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.] 3 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? 4 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? 5 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____________________________________________________________ 6 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…. 7 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 8