How do you report and communicate your environmental education assessment results and findings?

2 Organize your results and findings

Once you have defined your purpose and audience, you need to organize your results and findings in a logical and coherent way. Use different methods, such as chronological, thematic, comparative, or evaluative; as well as different types of data, like quantitative, qualitative, or mixed, to support your results and findings.

It's essential to provide an overview of your assessment goals, objectives, questions, methods, and limitations. Additionally, you should highlight the key results and findings that answer your assessment questions and relate to your goals and objectives. Explain the meaning and significance of your results and findings in relation to the existing literature and practice. And lastly, discuss the implications and recommendations of your results and findings for environmental education practice, policy, research, and action while acknowledging the limitations of the assessment. Also suggest areas for improvement or further research.

3 Visualize your results and findings

Another way to report and communicate your results and findings is to visualize them using graphs, charts, tables, maps, diagrams, photos, or videos. Visualizing your results and findings can help simplify complex or large amounts of data, highlight patterns, trends, or relationships among data, compare or contrast different data sets or groups, emphasize important or surprising data points or findings, and attract attention from your audience. However, when you visualize your results and findings you must ensure that the type of visualization is appropriate for the data and purpose, that it is labeled and titled accurately and that captions or explanations are provided. Also check that sources of the data and visualizations are cited and that misleading or confusing visualizations that distort or misrepresent data are avoided.

4 Tell a story with your results and findings

Telling a story with your results and findings is one of the most effective ways to communicate them. Doing so can help you connect with your audience emotionally and intellectually, provide context and relevance for your results and findings, showcase the impact and value of your environmental education program, and inspire action and change. When telling a story, make sure you have a clear plot with a beginning, middle, and end. Include a main character or protagonist that your audience can relate to or empathize with, as well as a conflict or challenge that is overcome with the help of your environmental education program. Have a resolution or outcome that shows how your protagonist and the environment benefit from your environmental education program, and use descriptive language, anecdotes, quotes, or testimonials to bring it to life.

5 Invite feedback and dialogue with your audience

Inviting feedback and dialogue with your audience after you report your results and findings can help you assess its effectiveness and impact. It also allows you to learn from your audience's perspectives, experiences, or suggestions, while building trust and rapport. And it encourages collaboration and partnership, as well as ongoing learning and action from your audience. When inviting feedback and dialogue with your audience, be sure to provide opportunities and channels for them to share their feedback or questions. Respond respectfully and constructively, acknowledge their contributions, thank them for their participation, and follow up with them to keep them updated on your work.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?