This competency enables the learner to:
Evaluation is the constant companion of the White Stag learner and staff member. We constantly strive to improve ourselves, so we continually evaluate how we are doing. We call this the "Evaluation Attitude." This attitude, it turns out, is one of the five founding principles of the White Stag program. (See Follow the White Stag, Chapter 2 - "Program Principles" for a description of these concepts.)
In almost any situation, except when responding to purely mechanical systems, we must consider the task and the people, as shown in Figure 16-1.
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Ask a Patrol Member Development candidate at the end of the summer camp, "When do you evaluate?" and he'll tell you, "Always."
Ask another candidate from Patrol Leader Development "what do you look for when you evaluate?" and he'll say, "The strong and the weak points, possible improvements, and things to keep."
Ask a third candidate, a young woman from Troop Leader Development, bowed under a large pack, "What is evaluation?" and he'll tell you everything the others have said and add, "We evaluate how well the group is keeping itself together and how well we're getting the job done."
Evaluation is a continual process, either informal or formal, of judging a situation against a standard.
Evaluation is, in essence, two things:
Our desire is to improve our evaluation skills so that we evaluate in the same manner a eagle soars on the winds: constantly testing, consciously and unconsciously, wind current, flow, our altitude, strength, time, direction, position relative to our target, etc., all the elements that affect our reaching and surpassing the next mountain peak.
Why is evaluation important? Because we want to know whether we are achieving our goals. So why are goals important?
Better to ask, "What would ever be accomplished if no one ever had a goal?" What if Henry Ford had not set a goal to mass produce a car? Surely, you say, someone else would have. But only if they too had a goal.
To achieve a goal you need a motive.
A motive is an internal force, what drives us forward, an intrinsic force within us that makes us get up earlier and go to bed later because we want to make something happen.
A motivation is an external, extrinsic reward for achieving our goals.
The thing you want to accomplish--your dream or vision--is what binds your motive and motivation together.
Something bigger than the individual is required to drive us unrelentingly towards the perceived end. Motives may be externally or internally derived. Some people are motivated by the idea of financial independence and work many years to achieve it. Others may be spurred on by the desire to be of service, to give back that which was previously rendered to them by others.
The power of a person with a goal who is convinced of the righteousness of the idea should not be underestimated. Mountains can be moved when a person's heart and mind is fully engaged in pursuit of a worthy goal.
We strive to not only provide the learner with a tool box of leadership skills but with a chest of self-esteem, to not only help the user improve his hand and head skills, but his heart as well. Thus a key part of our challenge is to tap into individual and group motives, to help them develop worthy goals.
So we set ourselves to the task of writing goals and objectives that are explicit and comprehensive, including not only the hand and head skills, but the heart skills as well. We strive to develop objectives that quantify the spirit of the White Stag Youth Leadership Development Program.
This chapter describes how to write goals and objectives that include hand, head, and heart behaviors, and how to conceive, construct, implement, and evaluate the learners' success in achieving them.
The evaluation attitude is a "predisposition to continually examine and analyze our efforts."1 Evaluation is a critical component of the cyclical learning process. It does not just occur formally at the conclusion of activities, but informally as well, by all involved, throughout the project or task. The Evaluation Attitude is one of the principals that form the basis of the White Stag Leadership Development Program.
"One who applies this attitude or technique will be continually aware of the objectives of his learnings and will attempt to measure his growth toward them."2
Growth in and improvement of leadership performance are dependent upon the leader's willingness to change, his ability to define the kind of change he needs, and the experience he has in changing himself.
The leader's ability to define the kind of change he needs is based on his competency to evaluate. Changes or learning in the desired direction can be brought about only by continuous self-analysis by evaluating goals and achievements. Learning to analyze, evaluate, and plan improvement becomes, then, an objective of great significance.
Techniques and methods of evaluation are being used intensively at virtually every step of the White Stag program. Evaluation becomes second nature to the leader-in-training and it is applied as an attitude and as a learned technique to each individual's on-the-job performance.
The development of an evaluation attitude, therefore, is another key criterion in the White Stag method. Throughout the entire program numerous devices should be used to evaluate oneself, your group, or the program in its entirety. Self, peer and group rating forms, performance ratings, observation and program analysis reports and trainee and trainer evaluation scales are used frequently, both by the leaders-in-training and staff members. This technique is valuable in sharpening the candidate's awareness of what constitutes critical behavior as well as supplying motivation and guidance for further growth.
In a nutshell, to better ourselves and a situation.
Informally, all the time. Formally, preferably in writing, immediately after we finish major tasks.
Everyone. The leader will make it a point to informally evaluate at all times. All members will contribute to the formal (group) evaluation as a task concludes.
Rarely is a perfect balance achieved between completing the task and maintaining the group. In practice, a graphic representation of the evaluation of the situation might look like that in Figure 16-2 below.
When evaluating the job, we consider:
When evaluating the group, consider:
We place paramount value on the worth and integrity of every individual. Leaders must be aware of peoples' differences. They must be aware that all individuals need success experiences. Therefore the best evaluation we can conduct is one in which each person compares his own progress against personal standards and not those of a universal "average" or "best." If the individual knows how he stands relative to jointly established standards, then he will be motivated to keep on trying.
This is why we encourage the use of individual Leadership Growth Agreements (LGAs). These are personal contracts an individual makes for applying the leadership development competencies in the learner's own environment. They also encourage the learner to take home what he's learned during the camp experience and apply it to their home, church group, leadership council, Scout troop, and so forth. You can find more complete information about LGAs and an example LGA form in Resources for Leadership, Chapter 6 - "Evaluation Instruments".
Evaluation is also a process for sorting and resolving conflicts, usually between individual experiences of reality. Sometime a very emotional issue can be resolved if the arguments for and against can be broken down into discrete (objective) chunks, specific enough to be described and evaluated. By breaking an emotional issued into more objective chunks, we can:
We also protect individuals against having their individual perception of a situation attacked and encourage acceptance of divergent points of view.
Since you can observe an individual's behavior, it's pretty easy to determine if someone has acquired a hand (physical) skill. Can he build a fire with one match? On the next level, it's relatively easy to quantify a head, or intellectual (cognitive) skill. Can the learner list the five steps of problem-solving and use them to help the group plan to build a bridge?
But many of the outcomes of the White Stag program are in the heart, or emotional (affective) domain: for example, feelings of self-worth, ability to cooperate with others, ability to make decisions, ability to think for oneself, respect for the values of others. It is extremely difficult to quantify and evaluate this kind of growth for a one-week program. The best we can do is to list proven "behaviors" that indicate the presence of certain values or beliefs. But evidence of these behaviors doesn't assure that the learner is able to retain what he has experienced during summer camp.
While the summer camp is our yearly focus for the program, it is not where most of the learning takes place. While participants leave the summer camp experience on a emotional high and with great enthusiasm, they will profit little if they do not return.
The summer camp is but a "laboratory" for the year-round post members, themselves former summer camp attendees. The summer camp is but an opportunity for them to apply the leadership skills they have acquired and improved on during the past year. It is these individuals' learning and practice of the leadership competencies over several years that demonstrates the effectiveness of the program.
But, the question remains, how do we know that someone has personally grown as a result of participation in White Stag?
Developing and writing clear, concise, and meaningful goals and objectives is a challenge. Being able to define quantifiable, observable goals and objectives is one of the more difficult skills of leadership. Each year each adult and youth staff attempts to define what is unique to that year's program. Sometimes they are successful.
We write objectives, including objectives for heart skills, or affective behavior, because they provide the following four results.
What is worth teaching is worth defining and stating for all to understand. If you can't define what your are teaching, how do you know it's worthwhile? Learners can place value on learning ideas and performing tasks when the tasks are clearly stated.
For the staff, to instruct; for the learners, to understand; for the parents, unit leaders, and supporting board or foundation, to validate the program's effectiveness and worth and to justify continued support.
We want to explain what we do to ourselves and to others and document it. We also don't want to just continue what we're doing. Unless it's written, we can't know if we are or aren't "reinventing the (broken) wheel."
Well-written objectives immediately identify the behaviors and learning activities desired, and thus translate into the materials, time, people, locations, and other resources required.
The program plan is composed of many linked objectives. Their accomplishment or lack of accomplishment defines program success. If no definition of the desired outcomes is ever set, each person is left with only his own personal, subjective feelings of what was accomplished. "If you don't know where you are going, you won't know if you get there."
A goal is one or more general statement(s) identifying a long-term purpose, usually as a result of the accomplishment of several objectives. Just as a process is a collection of several procedures, a goal is comprised of a number of objectives. It defines where you want to go.
Goals can have different characters and they may be relatively immediate or long-term in nature. You may conceive of a goal independent of the constraints inhibiting its possible accomplishment. This may be desirable when attempting to change an existing system, as you want to step beyond what you already know which may or may not work. Or you may wish to define certain assumptions that must be met when defining the goal.
Suppose, for example, that the location for the summer camp program was found to be unsatisfactory. The staff may develop a goal for finding a site that matches an evolutionary vision of the program in the future.
Our goal is to purchase a summer camp program site on the border of a federally designated wilderness within a four-hour drive of San Jose, California.
After defining the goal for finding a new site, the staff may find that immediate budget constraints limit achievement of the goal. They may then choose to define certain conditions that, when met over a period of time, would allow the evolutionary goal to be attained at some future date.
Our goal is to raise $1,000,000 in contributions.
We desire to increase candidate enrollment to 500 participants each summer.
The intermediate conditions become shorter-term goals that must be quantified and further broken down. These become your objectives.
Meaningfully stated objectives:
More objectively, you can apply the SMART criteria, shown below. Ask yourself, is each objective:
| S - Significant | Is the item significant? Is it important? Will it have an impact on your unit's program? |
| M - Measurable | Is the item measurable? How will you know when it's done? Can the progress be tracked? |
| A - Appropriate | Is this task within your job responsibilities? Does it need to be done? Is this an opportunity that is available to you? |
| R - Realistic | Can the item be accomplished? Can it be brought to a successful conclusion? Do you have control over the task? |
| T - Timely | Can it be done in a timely manner? Is it going to take too much time to accomplish? Can it be done in a reasonable time? Place a time limit on it, "A Dream becomes a Goal, with a deadline on it. |
Specifically, an objective identifies four things:
You can't evaluate a group very easily. A good objective names the actor who is being evaluated.
The objective needs to define the task or behavior. To behave is defined as, "To act, react, function, or perform in a particular way" Behavior is defined as, "The actions or reactions of persons or things under specific circumstances." You'll notice that very specific controls are required: a "particular way;" "specific circumstances."
Behavior means taking action: you can see what the learner is doing. It is a learner's direct, observable, overt action, not something you infer or deduce from what they said or did. This calls for specific, measurable criterion.
As you write an objective, you must describe the standard or test that can be used to evaluate whether the objective is actually partially or completely achieved. If your learning outcomes are complex, you may need to write more objectives that allow participants to achieve partial success. Shooting for the moon is great, but hitting the side of the barn is progress.
An objective refers to the behavior desired of a learner at the time influence over him ends. The quantity described must be explicit, measurable and verifiable (by other than whoever conceived it). It is a quantitative representation of the number of repetitions, steps, amount of time, resources required or limited.
You have thirty minutes, two 6' spars, and two 12' lengths of rope. Use the five-step Manager of Learning competency to teach the other members of your patrol to tie a square lashing.
The objective needs to describe the quality of the behavior desired. This can be quantified in both very specific physical, cognitive language and in emotional, affective terms as well.
Cognitive objectives describe the task in specific behavioral terms. It uses words that describe observable action:
to write, identify, recite, differentiate, construct, list, diagram, draw, practice, compare, contrast, and so forth;
Cognitive objectives do not use nebulous, vague, and generic language like:
to know, enjoy, believe, grasp the significance of, be certain of, realize, work, desire, like, be familiar with, remember, apply, understand, have faith in, to really understand, to appreciate, to fully appreciate, and so forth.
For a categorized list of verbs useful in a writing explicit objectives and a list of words and phrases to avoid, see Appendix B - "Key Words in Instructional Objectives".
So you would add to the previous example:
You have thirty minutes, three 6' spars, and six 12' lengths of rope. Use the five-step Manager of Learning competency to teach the other members of your patrol to tie a diagonal lashing. The lashings must be able to carry the weight of three patrol members standing on any cross-bar.
We want to write objectives that can be successfully met.
Sometimes the specific outcomes are not clear and need amplification. So we might further add:
You have thirty minutes, three 6' spars, and two 12' lengths of rope. Use the five-step Manager of Learning competency to teach the other members of your patrol to tie a square lashing. The lashings must be able to carry the weight of three patrol members standing on any cross-bar. Patrol members must be able to describe each of the five steps of Manager of Learning used during your session.
One of the characteristics that differentiates White Stag from other leadership programs is its emotional impact on people. We want them to have a "True White Stag Experience". We want to fill them with the spirit of cooperation and friendship that current members know and enjoy. We want them to exhibit qualities of leadership like compassion, empathy, and servant leadership. We aim to influence individuals' attitudes and values, because they reflect an individual's deeper emotions, motivations and reasoning.
Affective change can be evaluated by measuring the change in the rate of the behavior targeted. Our challenge is to qualify and quantify the affective behaviors desired. The attitudes and values we want to measure can be effectively described by qualifying the specific, verbal behaviors and physical actions sought.
The candidates will develop an appreciation of the White Stag spirit and traditions, and feel enthusiastic about their experience when they go home.
The candidate will:
- Participate in a candidate neckerchief, legend, and phase neckerchief ceremony.
- Paraphrase from memory at least three parts of the White Stag Legend and describe how the principles evident in the Legend are present in the program today.
- Write down two ways he can apply one of the principles of the Legend.
- Have an opportunity to express in writing and verbally his feelings about his week in camp.
On a practical level, program participants will only have an opportunity to set goals and write objectives for themselves in relationship to their personal growth. This is typically documented using Leadership Growth Agreements (LGA). More complete information about LGAs and an example LGA form in Resources for Leadership, Chapter 6 - "Evaluation Instruments".
The Leadership Growth Agreement is the learner's contract to apply at home what he learned at camp. It is prepared by the learner with counsel from a staff member. It is an important component of the overall evaluation effort (For an example of the form, see Personal Leadership Growth Agreement). In Wood Badge, its cousin is known as the "Ticket."
The purpose of the LGA is to motivate the learner, whether a new participant or a staff member, to use his newly acquired skills, knowledge, and abilities to serve others in helpful, productive ways--primarily in his home unit.
The Leadership Growth Agreement concept was devised by Béla Bánáthy, the founder of White Stag:
Leadership development cannot be perceived as a single training course or as a one-shot event, but must be a continuous sequence of closely chained and systematically organized learning and experience building opportunities.7
If we accept the premise that White Stag is not a "one-shot" event, then we must provide a means for application as part of our model.
The test of any leadership program is not, and never should be, the training situation itself, but its applied manifestation. There comes a time when the trainee has returned to his group and performs the leadership role...8Individuals formulate operational and measurable objectives for the application of the newly-acquired competence in the back-home situation in and out of Scouting.10...The leader-in-training is...required to engage in further self-development and self-evaluation. He must write a report on his leadership achievements.9
While Bánáthy did not use the phrase, "Leadership Growth Agreement," his language fully supports the concept. The LGA is the key for the summer camp participant to take home and use what they learned in camp. (When the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America studied the White Stag program, they adapted the concept of the LGA to create the Wood Badge Ticket.)
At the conclusion of the presentation of each competency during staff training or the summer camp, the Manager of Learning asks the learner how he might apply the competency in the position held back home.
The Manager of Learning then asks each learner to write down for later use in the LGA one or two ways the competency might be used.
The staff or candidate has an individual counseling session with the coach counselor. They:
The LGA is ideally prepared in triplicate: one copy to the learner, one to his home leader, and one to the White Stag counselor. The LGA may apply to any position in or out of White Stag. We do have an obligation to the learner's home unit who has typically sent the participant; our priority ought to be to develop applications in that area.
The LGA helps the learner to apply his learning using real-life service opportunities. They are experiences planned in advance that demonstrate application of a leadership competency in some way. For example, helping the team plan a menu, organizing the purchase, and directing the cooking of a meal successfully could be a LGA for Planning.
The complexity of the LGA depends on the learner's level of knowledge and ability. A Phase I LGA might read, "I will apply 'Communications' by taking notes at team meetings." A Phase III LGA might read, "I will apply 'Communications' by presenting a session on the competency to my team members at home."
No one single action, event or accomplishment ought to be used for fulfillment of more than one part of an LGA. A follow-on or succeeding action could be, providing each can be identified and acted upon independently.
Applying one leadership competency may introduce the use of another competency. However, each part of an LGA ought to be primarily oriented towards one subject.
Evaluating LGA completion is done jointly by the learner and his leader (a candidate or staff member and his home youth leader). Fulfillment is based on performance, not on a person's ability to write it down. Oral conferences and evaluation is suitable. A copy of a youth member's or participant's LGA must be given to their home youth leader.
The LGA evaluation must answer at least the following questions:
The amount of knowledge a youth can acquire and retain during one week of camp is limited. One way we can help them improve what they learn and remember is to help them write realistic, challenging, and flexible LGAs.
It is helpful if you can come up with an effective "carrot" that will motivate learners to complete their LGA. Suggestions include a special patch, neckerchief, or a special sticker that can be added to the certificate to indicate completion.
The purpose of an incentive is to encourage learners to complete the application and to give them recognition. In addition, it is important for the learner to realize that leadership development is not a "one-shot" deal, and that learning is ongoing.
It is clear that the learner can benefit from LGAs. He will realize that leadership development does not end when he gets in the car to go home. Learning is increased because LGAs are a written application and a follow-on evaluation. There are many other benefits to LGAs:
See the next page for an example of a typical "Personal
Leadership Growth Agreement" worksheet.
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Phase: PMD PLD TLD Patrol: ______________ Team Leader/ Counselor's Name: ________________ Individual's Name: ________________ |
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1. Leadership Role:
What is your current leadership position in your home group
or unit? 2. Problem description. Describe a personal characteristic of yours, a problem hindering the group in which you are active that you would like to improve, or a service project you would like to perform. 3. Plan for action. Describe a plan for action that you believe will better this situation. Describe exactly what you will do to apply the competency. 4. Results expected. Describe what you expect to happen because of your plan. _________________ ___/___/___ __________________ ___/___/___ Candidate's Signature Date Unit Leader's signature Date |
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If the evaluation plan you create is to be effective, then you must develop and design appropriate evaluation methods, tools, and forms. This section describes how to design an evaluation plan that will accurately and objectively measure the results you want to achieve.
Several potential evaluation methods3 are described in Table 16-1, " Evaluation Methodologies.".
Evaluation instruments must be designed in advance of the activity to be evaluated. Evaluation instruments include:
Samples of forms successfully used by the White Stag Program are shown in the companion book Follow the White Stag, Chapter 6 - "Evaluation Instruments".
There are times when a simple answer is the best, either because the subject does not warrant complex answers or there needs to be convenient way of scoring, especially if there are a lot of questions. Using numbered choices is an effective way to get evaluation feedback. It's quick and simple for everyone.
A Likert type item consists of a statement followed by a usually five-point scale with a word choice describing each point on the scale. Each point on the scale should appear equal distance apart, as shown in Table 16-2 below.
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Other word choices are possible. The bottom line is that it is a good idea to use numerical values, like the ordinal values in Table 16-3 below:
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These kinds of questions offer you more useful information than simple Yes | No responses, known in the statistical analysis field as "nominal measures." Simple either/or response do not give you any relative measure; the best you can do is to sum the responses and calculate percentages, which is not very informative.
Another example like the Likert Scale is the Semantic Differential Scale Table 16-4 below:
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It is a "semantic" scale because the participant must evaluate the difference in their mind between the words given. There are many other choices possible, including:
Seven, nine, or ten point semantic differential scales are used most often as they lend themselves to easy analysis.
Depending on how scientific an analysis you want to conduct, you should use interval level or at least ordinal level scales whenever possible. You can conduct more powerful statistical analysis using these methods than is possible using simple nominal, "Yes | No", answers.
Only very important areas of concern call for narrative or essay answers, which are usually quite limited in any case. If you need information about how a person feels, you must permit him some freedom of expression. You may want to consider a narrative report in this case.
Criteria, unless absolutely obvious, must be defined. Numbered ranges for response especially require qualification. For example:
Circle 1 to 5; 5 means, "Conscious and evident use of the skill," 1 means, "Skill barely or not evident."
When developing your evaluation instruments, consider the difficulty required to assemble the data you collected into an intelligible whole. You want to minimize the effort and time required to make sense of the information provided by the evaluators. But you must also consider what kinds of responses will give you a realistic assessment. You may occasionally want to use narrative answers to cross-check and validate more simple forms of assessment, or to seek more detailed responses, but the majority of your feedback should be simple enough to be analyzed in a computer spreadsheet.
If you find that your evaluation forms require a large or disproportionate number of narrative answers, it´s possible that your objectives are poorly constructed or venture too far into "intangible" outcomes that have not been appropriately reduced to easily understood objectives. You will also find that you spend more time analyzing the evaluation but produce less concrete and useful results.
The evaluation methods you select should be directly related to the goals and objectives developed. You must select evaluation methods and instruments that will measure the types of objectives you've written, whether they are affective or cognitive goals and objectives.
Evaluations are quite often influenced by personal values. There does not mean that the answer is wrong but rather than their influencing factor needs to be recognized. Personal values also influence what will be evaluated. Some things are more important to an individual than others.
Responses to evaluation questionnaires can be inappropriately influenced if questions are not properly stated. If you are not careful, the questioning may be worded in such a way that it almost dictates the answer to the question. You should also carefully select the method provided for answering the question, as it should be tailored to the type of response required.
Evaluation questions must be simply stated. The tone ought to be neutral and objective without emotional affectations. Alternate responses ought to provide for no response, a range of positive ("It worked great") and negative ("It didn't work at all!") answers, and "no opinion" responses.
There are situations in which an honest evaluation is not possible because an individual feels threatened. For instance, when an employer asks an employee a question, the employee may think he needs to give the answer he thinks is wanted. On the other hand, if the employee were answer questions anonymously, the perceived threat might be removed.
Another type of threat is how the evaluation relates to the person conducting it. For instance, when program sponsors have made a large investment in an endeavor, the investors may quite naturally feel protective of their efforts and threatened by evaluation. The climate needs to create confidence in the evaluation system and evaluator.
The book Follow the White Stag, Chapter 6 - "Evaluation Instruments" contains a number of sample evaluation instruments used over several years that meet the criteria above. The "Overall Objective Evaluation" of that manual may be especially useful as each year's phase leadership can substitute the particular objectives it has written for that year. Not all phases will evaluate all the items each year, but it is generally agreed these are the items deserving evaluation each year in most parts of the program. Moreover, the forms can be adapted for evaluation of staff as well as candidates.
Your evaluation instruments ought to be designed with the input of those who will use them. If a procedure or form is poorly conceived and implemented, it is unlikely to be used accurately if at all.
It is easy to lose a few forms or to have the whole evaluation effort sidetracked by a schedule change or delay. You may also forget to remind youth staff to conduct evaluations or not allow enough time for the staff or candidates to adequately complete the forms. It is good idea to designate one individual to coordinate and control the distribution and receipt of evaluation forms and records, and to provide immediate feedback when appropriate.
Keep extra forms available in a central area, and designate a place and/or time by which staff should complete and return forms.
Each youth staff member who is a patrol leader (in PMD) or patrol counselor (in PLD and TLD) should assist the candidates in evaluating their own completion of the objectives. An effective technique for this is to post the objectives publicly.
Evaluation discussions should be formally conducted at the end of each staff training event, sometimes every night. During the summer camp, the staff meets every night to evaluate that day's program and people's behavior, the following day's schedule, to receive and turn in evaluation forms, to evaluate notebooks, and so forth
Gathering information is the purpose of evaluation. Sometimes we gather the maximum information possible, naively ignoring the impact on the entire program. The evaluation effort must consider the optimum information that can be gathered in a usable form with the minimum impact on the learner's program and the staff member's time.
Positive rewards are exponentially more effective in achieving the results you want than any attention given the behaviors you don't want. This is true for both children and adults. So put this common sense idea to work for you by letting the participants know what you want and recognizing them when they achieve it.
One extremely effective technique you can use is to post a large wall chart in a central, public location. This wall chart summarizes your objectives. Posting the objectives accomplishes several important purposes:
For example, suppose you want to emphasize the competency Knowing and Using Group Resources. You can write several objectives around spirit and traditions, which you know will force the patrol to utilize their group resources and help bring them together. You might write an objective like, "Every member of the patrol will make a Turk's head neckerchief slide, name plate, and waist rope by the end of the first day." You post that objective on the board--the patrols check it off--now you know that it's downright likely that this particular group is pulling together and making things happen.
Require participants in the patrol meeting to evaluate their progress as individuals and as a group. Because of the competitive spirit, some individuals may feel inclined to check off objectives that are not yet complete. The patrols should conduct the evaluation in the presence and with the input of the staff Patrol Leader/Counselor. Their presence will help preserve the integrity and honesty of the evaluation process. An example of a chart is shown in Table 16-3 below.
| An objective score sheet like this can be posted as a wall chart in a public location in camp to let participants tally their own accomplishment of the objectives. The total and percentage rows are not posted publicly, but used by the staff to evaluate progress. | ||||||||
| Patrol | Communication | Resources of the Group | Group Resources | Example | Planning | Evaluation | Manager of Learning | Sharing Leadership |
| Redwood | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| Sequoia | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |
| Tanbark Oak | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| Madrone | X | X | X | X | ||||
| Total completed | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Percent completed | 75% | 75% | 50% | 75% | 75% | 75% | 75% | 75% |
Once the patrol completes its evaluation, a representative should check off on the publicly posted wall chart each completed objective. Since the wall chart can only briefly refer to an objective by name or number, the complete list of objectives should be attached to the wall chart. Copies of the objectives should also be available in each patrol campsite.
Make a fuss over the patrol that completes the most objectives each day, or over all the patrols that complete all of the objectives for that day.You might send the top patrols off to the kitchen for ice cream all around, or have the entire troop give them a big cheer. The key is to make sure that not only do the individuals in the patrol know they are making progress, but to make sure everyone else in the troop knows it too.
Making a fuss adds a little bit to that competitive spirit, but don't over do it. You do not want to encourage competition to such a degree that someone may be tempted to cut corners.
Finally, be sure to tie objective accomplishment into an award to the top patrol of the week.
All of the techniques above are also effective during staff development. When you model this kind of evaluation program for the staff during the year, they can easily design and implement their own for the summer camp. Nothing like success breeds success!
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