Recognizing And Rewarding 4-H’ers

Recognition is an acknowledgment and affirmation of the personal growth in an individual. It can be public or private. It can be within the individual or provided by others. Recognition in 4-H encourages and supports learning and growth.

Why Recognize 4-Hers?

Recognition in 4-H has several purposes:

• To further motivate youth to excel, take risks, and develop new skills and abilities.
• To provide a strong foundation for each young person to engage in self-reflection and self-praise without the need for external rewards.
• To support the efforts of young people as they engage in individualized learning, group activities, and peer competition.
• When used in all its forms, to provide balance to the evaluation which young people receive as they move to increasingly difficult challenges.

Matching Recognition and Rewards with Personal Motivators

Recognition is a incentive to further learning. Used properly, recognition can inspire and motivate young people to continue participating and learning. In short, 4-H recognition should match the needs of the young people with whom we work.

Motivation is what energizes a person and directs individual activity. According to some researchers, youth are motivated in varying degrees by affiliation (belonging to a group), power (relationships in working with others), and achievement (the accomplishment of goals and standards, and/or competitive excellence).

For some youth, internal recognition and personal satisfaction are more powerful than external recognition and rewards such as ribbons, trophies, and other tangible awards. For others, the exact opposite is true.

Different kids are motivated by different things in varying degrees. Therefore, it is important that we provide a variety of kinds of recognition opportunities through 4-H.

4-H Recognition Model

The 4-H Recognition Model includes five types of recognition. It is important for adults who work with 4-Hers to provide a balance of all five types of appropriate recognition for all participants.

Participation

Recognizing 4-Hers for participation in experiences acknowledges the importance of involvement and being part of a group. 4-Hers motivated by affiliation take pride in being part of groups and programs, and especially appreciate recognition for participation.

Rewards for participation can include such intangible things as having all participants stand for a round of applause, telling 4-Hers you are glad they are taking part, and announcing the names of all participants at events. Publishing pictures of everyone in the group in a local newspaper and listing participant names in radio or television stories is another good way to recognize participation. Or, if it is appropriate, to provide tangible rewards to recognize participation, for example t-shirts, ribbons, certificates, or other awards.

Group contribution

Recognition for group contribution helps youth develop the interpersonal leadership and cooperative skills and abilities they will need to be successful in the interdependent, global society of the 21st century.

4-Hers who are motivated by affiliation and power especially seem to value recognition for their contributions in groups. Rewards for group contribution include such things as “grand champion kid” badges which some counties give to 4-Hers who help other members, Japanese-style “keisan” awards which reward good ideas which benefit the group or the accomplishment of group goals, and “congeniality” awards.

Progress Toward Goals

Recognition of progress toward personal goals encourages youth to do realistic self-assessment and to set meaningful goals. 4-Hers who are motivated by affiliation might set goals related to getting involved in a new group. Those motivated by power might set goals such as forming a committee to do something. Those motivated by achievement might want to gain specific skills through projects. Advisors should work with 4-Hers to set realistic and exciting goals which motivate them to meet new challenges each year.

For recognition of progress toward goals to be meaningful, it should be provided by the advisor or other adult who has worked most closely with the 4-Her throughout the experience, and who is in a position to actually know what degree of progress has been achieved. Recognition for progress is usually best given before peers at the local program or club level. (Note: Usually people who serve as judges at county 4-H project judging and fairs can only evaluate what they see at a given point in time. Since they do not work with the 4-Hers over time, such judges are not able to accurately assess members’ progress toward goals. Therefore, judges should not be asked to assess members’ progress at the end of an experience.)

Appropriate recognition for progress toward goals can vary widely. Some clubs have a pizza party or special field trip at the end of the year for everyone who meets their goals. Some keep records of progress toward goals on a chart which is displayed at meetings, and give gold star awards when someone meets a goal. Others set up a “contract” system as members set goals whereby everyone agrees that if a member does “____,” his or her reward will be “_____.”

If you are uncertain about what types of recognition your 4-Hers would most appreciate, ask them. Appropriate recognition for goal accomplishment can be planned at the same time you work with members in setting personal goals.

Achievement of Standards

Recognition of achievement of standards of excellence gives youth external, predetermined targets for their learning experiences. Examples of recognition of standards achievement include:

• If attendance at meetings is important for the group, everyone who attends every meeting might earn a free pass to a local attraction, and everyone who misses no more than one or two meetings might get a discount coupon for the attraction.
• Everyone whose final project meets certain high criteria earns an “A,” those who meet lesser criteria earn “Bs” and those whose projects meet minimum criteria “Cs.”
• Everyone who meets certain requirements which are spelled out ahead of time earns a standard reward. The “performance against standards” system for selecting county representatives to the state 4-H horse show, and the State 4-H Ambassador application system (where everyone who earns 25 points in each of six areas earns an invitation to be a State 4-H Ambassador,) are examples of this type of recognition.

Competitive Achievement

When planned and conducted appropriately, experiences in competition can enhance positive youth development and prepare young people with the sportsmanship and competitive knowledge, skills, attitudes, and aspirations needed for success as adults. However, when done inappropriately (for example, with children younger than age 9, who typically are not developmentally ready intellectually, emotionally, or socially to handle losing), competition can be negative for all concerned. Therefore, all 4-H competitions are limited to youth age 9 or older.

4-Hers who are motivated by achievement, especially value the recognition and rewards they gain through competition. Being recognized for performance in comparison to others can be a strong motivator for many older youth. Rewards for competitive performance can be as simple as announcing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place “winners” with no tangible prizes, or as extravagant as huge cash premiums, scholarships, and trips.

By: Ohio State University
Extension