I am on the hunt at the moment for good evaluation instruments for evaluating life skills. Those of you that know my work and my book know that I use the WHO definition of Life Skills. They are distinct from 'livelihood' and technical skills and include: decision-making, goal setting, problem-solving, coping with stress, coping with emotions, negotiating, friendship, interpersonal relationships, empathy (concern for others), critical thinking, creative thinking, resisting peer pressure, assertiveness!
Although there are many programmes promote life skills work and activities with children and young people I have not been able to find that many good evaluation instruments. Probably the richest source to date have been the Human Service Research Group and they have done some thorough work on developing instruments for skills that include: critical thinking, communication, problem solving, goal setting, leadership and decision making. Have a look at their ranking tools here
I was also quite pleased to find similar type of instruments at the former British government's 'standards site'. These instruments are for use in secondary schools but there are also good ones for using at the primary level.
A more fun approach to evaluation with young people is detailed in The Evaluators Cookbook and I'll be looking at adapting some of these ideas for the developing country context.
What I also know is that when The Jacobs Foundation have completed this project on Monitoring and Evaluating Life Skills Programmes for Youth Development. It is going to get a very wide readership!
If you know of anything that is working well in your Life Skills programme - please get in touch or share it with me and others on this blog.
Thanks!