Educator Self-Study Module
Step 7. Select intervention technique(s)
In Steps 1 - 5 you assessed behavior needs and audience skills related to your particular topic. In Step 6 you identified specific behaviors for the focus of your outreach initiative. In Step 7 you apply what you've learned to design an outreach strategy that is likely to produce the result you hope to achieve. Do you need to provide information or skills, encourage a change of behavior, raise awareness, or encourage participation in solving a problem? [Background: What do citizens need to do?]
How do you get from the need you have identified to the outcomes you hope for? Plan walks you through a process to design and implement an outreach initiative that is most likely to result in a predictable and measurable outcome.
Whether the goal is to increase citizen involvement or to transform individual or group actions, there are many techniques that have potential for leading to a change in behavior as part of an outreach initiative. Any specific technique is likely to be more effective in some situations than in others. Making this choice is the art of education. Include an experienced educator in the team that decides which techniques are more likely to address the needs you identified in the assessment process.
Choosing a technique
Developing a strategy: Short term or long term change?
A continuum of choices
References for Step 7
Content for this section is identified on Water Outreach Web pages linked here, as well as:
Andrews, E., Stevens, M., & Wise, G. (2002). A model of community-based environmental education. Chapter 10 in New Tools for Environmental Protection: Education, Information, and Voluntary Measures. National Research Council Division of Behavior and Social Sciences and Education: Committee on the Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change, Thomas Dietz and Paul C. Stern, editors. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Booth, E. M. (1996). Starting with behavior: A participatory process for selecting target behaviors in environmental programs. Washington, DC: GreenCOM, Academy for Educational Development, 1255 23rd St., NW.
Beyers, B. (2000). Understanding and Influencing Behaviors. A Guide. Washington, D.C.: Biodiversity Support Program, c/o World Wildlife Fund.
De Young, R. (1993). Changing behavior and making it stick: The conceptualization and management of conservation behavior. Environment and Behavior, 25(4), 485-505.
Dwyer, W. O., Lemming, F. C., Cobern, M. K., Porter, B. E., & Jackson, J. M. (1993). Critical review of behavioral interventions to preserve the environment: Research since 1980. Environment and Behavior, 25(3), 275-321.
Gardner, G. T., & Stern, P. C. (1996). Environmental problems and human behavior. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. p. 159.
McKenzie-Mohr, D. (1995). Promoting a sustainable future: An introduction to community-based social marketing. Ottawa, ON: National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.
Pearce, J. (2006). Organizational Behavior, Real Research for Real Managers: Individuals in Organizations. Irvine, CA: Melvin & Leigh Publishers.
Press, D. & A. Balch. (2002). Community environmental policy capacity and effective environmental protection. Chapter 11 in New Tools for Environmental Protection: Education, Information, and Voluntary Measures. National Research Council Division of Behavior and Social Sciences and Education: Committee on the Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change, Thomas Dietz and Paul C. Stern, editors. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
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