Treasure of 4-H Impact

4-H Record Books: An Untapped Source of 4-H Impact Information

Keith G. Diem
Through a variety of subject matter-related 4-H projects, the 4-H Youth Development Program aims to teach important life skills to youth, to help them become productive, contributing members of society. Evaluating the success of this mission isn’t always easy. But there are simple, unobtrusive ways to get indicators of what youth learn by participating in 4-H. For example, 4-H record books, which are often taken for granted as a mundane requirement for participation in competitive events, can be a great educational tool if used properly … and a virtual gold mine of 4-H impact information as well.

An analysis of a sample of 4-H record books submitted in 2002 through 2004 by 261 youth from nine counties in 19 projects in New Jersey revealed the variety of ways these youth benefited from 4-H involvement. By completing a checklist of items, 4-H Club members reported the knowledge and skills they learned or improved upon through their participation in 4-H projects each year. The percentage of youth reporting what they learned is indicated next to each item below:

Personal Skills

Knowledge of my project	81%
To set goals for myself	76%
To try something new	72%
How to keep records of important information in my project	71%
What I am interested in	71%
How to get more information about something I am interested in	70%
To deal with winning and losing gracefully	69%
To be proud of my accomplishments	69%
To understand my strengths and weaknesses	67%
What is important to me	64%
How to pay attention to instructions	62%
To feel good about myself	61%
How to give the 4-H Pledge	61%
How to satisfy my curiosity about a new subject	58%
To keep track of finances	58%
To take responsibility for my own words and actions	58%
To follow directions	57%
How to make wise choices and decisions	56%
To accept change	55%
New words and how to use them	51%
How to be careful and practice safety	51%
How to organize myself	50%
To make something with my hands	50%
To explore a career interest	48%
How different things relate to each other	48%
How to finish something I started	44%
To appreciate my cultural heritage	37%

Working with other people

 

To feel comfortable speaking in front of a group	72%
How to give a public presentation	70%
How to listen to other people	70%
To make new friends	68%
How to solve problems	67%
How to work with adults	66%
How to get along with other kids	63%
How to work with other kids	62%
How to work with the club to complete a community service project	61%
To respect someone else’s feelings	61%
To accept people who are different from me	59%
How to lead others	58%
How to help others succeed	57%
How to participate in a business meeting	47%
How to work on a committee	44%
How to run a business meeting	42%
Parliamentary procedure	37%

Other sections of the record book, such as “The 3 Most Important Things I Learned … ” and “Telling My Story,” allow youth to express what they learned, in their own words. They can also include photos, drawings and scrapbook items. This has provided excellent anecdotal evidence of 4-H program impact.  In Their Own Words …In the section of the record book entitled, “The 3 Most Important Things I Learned …”, 4-H members offered the following examples:

•    How to be confident when speaking in front of people
•   To believe in myself
•   To take charge and conduct a business meeting
•    To become an important team member
•    How things that are totally different come together to form something else
•    Patience is needed in almost anything that you do
•    How to complete all my tasks correctly
•    Finish things you started
•    Helping other people helps me to become a more responsible person
•     How to follow through with my goals
•     Winning is not everything
•     Never give up on a dream just because of the length of time it will take to accomplish it
•      How to balance my time
•     Treasury skills
•      Working together on a project makes it better
•      How to make friends
•      Getting along with others
•     To act with more feeling
•      Learning how to plan ahead
•      How to work with younger kids
•      How to set up and run a meeting
•      Don’t wait till the last minute to prepare fair entries
•     You have to follow through with your commitments
•      Working together as a team we can do great things
•     Over the years 4-H has given me so much strength and encouragement among other things and has been one of the most important focal points of my life

Summary: "Using Record Books as More Than a Competitive Tool,  Record-keeping can help 4-H’ers, as well as their parents and adult leaders, realize more of the value of their involvement in clubs, camps, projects and other educational activities.” (Diem and Devitt, 2003).  A record book doesn’t have to be merely a requirement for competitive events.  A wealth of information about what youth are learning can be easily gleaned from a review of the contents. A variety of 4-H record books that incorporate the checklists of life skills mentioned in this article, along with an integration of project learning and personal development, are available as PDF files, currently free-of-charge, at http://www.nj4h.rutgers.edu/pubs

Although it’s difficult to achieve truly scientific evaluation results due to the challenge of obtaining a representative sample of record books statewide, the findings have been replicated multiple years using the record books that were received. Counties having access to a large number of completed 4-H record books may be able to claim a representative sample and be even more confident of evaluation impact, at least for those youth who submit record books.

In any case, the anecdotal and other qualitative data received can be quite valuable for demonstrating the benefits of 4-H. So, the next time you are looking for such evidence, don’t overlook the obvious!

References

Diem, K., Devitt, A.  (December 2003).  Shifting the Focus of 4-H Record-Keeping from Competition and Subject Matter to Youth Development and Life Skills. Journal of Extension [On-line], Volume 41(6).  Available at: www.joe.org/joe/2003december/iw1.shtml

 

Diem, K. (1998) My 4-H Record Book – A General-purpose Record Book (4H239).  Rutgers Cooperative Extension.  New Brunswick, NJ.  Available online at: http://www.rcre.rutgers.edu/pubs/publication.asp?pid=4H239

 

 

Keith G. Diem, Ph.D., is Director of 4-H Youth Development and Professor at Clemson University.  He was formerly a Program Leader in Educational Design with Rutgers Cooperative Extension in New Jersey.