Evaluation and Behavior Change
Often when we do outreach, we are not just providing education but are actually seeking to have people adopt practice positive health or environmental actions, such as recycling, or walking instead of driving. While in the past, there was the thought that education alone could change people's minds to adopt these behaviors, there is a growing body of research showing that this is not the case. In order to get people to adopt new behaviors, called behavior change, more is needed beyond just providing educational materials. The following section will discuss the fundamentals of behavior change and how to evaluate outreach programs.
What is behavior change
Public Outreach and Behavior Change
This short but comprehensive guide outlines different foundations, theories and models of behavior change while also providing examples of applications and different resources practioners can use.
Behavior Change Theories and Techniques
Link to University of Wisconsin Extension PDF
This resource, aimed towards those doing outreach around environmental management, offers an introduction to behavior change designed to guide educator planning.
Tracking behavior change
Community-Based Social Marketing
Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM) is becoming a more commonly used method for professionals to implement behavior change campaigns. Their website overviews the practice and resources available to learn more.
Choosing Effective Behavior Change Tools
This paper from Douglas McKenzie-Mohr, the founder of CBSM, provides an overview of that technique and others that professionals can use.
Landowner Motivations for Civic Engagement in Water Resource Protection
Link to Clean River Partners PDF
This paper, published in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association, explore the psycho-social factors which influence landowner civic engagement in water resource protection and ends with a discussion of strategies to better engage landowners.
Evaluation resources
ERIC: Education Resources Information Center, Institute of Education Sciences
ERIC is a comprehensive, easy-to-use, searchable, Internet-based bibliographic and full-text database of education research and information.
Evaluating Youth and Education Programs
Link to University of Minnesota website
While aimed at youth and education programs, this site gives a comprehensive overview of why to evaluate programs, different evaluation methods, and how to report evaluations.
Community Assessment: Watershed Specialist Training Program
Link to University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point PDF
The Multilevel Community Capacity Model outlined here, developed by Davenport et al, has been used to assess programs such as We Are Water and is a method to help evaluate a community while working on an outreach campaign.
Groundwater Management: Capacity Assessment at the Local Level
The methodology provided in this capacity assessment of Minnesota Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) staff to engage in groundwater protection could be helpful to others looking to do similar social science research.
Evaluation templates
Defining the Problem
This short handout provides a template to break down complex problems in order to find more effective solutions.