Page 279 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

criterion-referenced.27

Types of Evaluation and Outcomes

After considering the purpose (why) and timing (when) of evaluation, the educator should resolve the
question of what to evaluate. Several types of evaluation can be used in measuring effectiveness. These are (1)
measurement of participant (client, employee) reactions to programs; (2) measurement of behavioral change;
(3) measurement of results in an organization; (4) evaluation of learning in the cognitive, affective, and
psychomotor domains; and (5) evaluation of other outcomes.27 The evaluation of health education is usually
focused on one or more types: knowledge, attitudes or beliefs, change in behavior, and other measures.

Participant Reaction to Programs

The first type of evaluation deals with participant (employee, client) reactions to educational programs and
whether or not they are favorable. Preferences may vary by age of the participants, cultural or ethnic group,
gender, socioeconomic status, and other variables. You need to decide what should be evaluated. Were
participants pleased and satisfied with the program, subject matter, content, materials, speakers, room
arrangements, physical facilities, and learning activities? When a program, meeting, or class is evaluated, the
purpose is to improve decisions concerning its various aspects, to see how the parts fit the whole, or to make
program changes.

The quality of learning elements, such as objectives, techniques, materials, and learning outcomes, may also
be included. Hedonistic scales or happiness indexes, such as smiley faces or numerical scales, have been used
to determine the degree to which participants “liked” various aspects. Although these judgments are
subjective, they are not useless, since learners who dislike elements of a program may not be learning.

Behavioral Change

A second type of evaluation is the measurement of change in behavior. Did employee or client behavior or
habits change based on the learning? In measuring behavior, the focus is on what the person does. In
employee training, for example, you may assess changes in job behaviors to see whether transfer of training to
the job has occurred. Continual quality improvement has influenced the need for this type of evaluation. It is
necessary to know what the job performance was before training and to decide who will observe or assess
changed performance—the supervisor, peers, or the individual. This type of assessment is more difficult to
measure and can be done selectively.

The ultimate criterion for effectiveness of nutrition education is not merely the improvement in knowledge
of what to eat, but also changes in dietary behaviors and practices as the individual develops better food habits.
Is the person consuming more fruits and vegetables, for example? These changes are difficult to confirm and
often depend on direct observation, which is time-consuming; on self-reports; and on indirect outcome
measures, such as weight gained or lost in a person on a weight reduction diet, reduction in blood pressure in
hypertensive persons, or better control of blood sugars in diabetes mellitus.14,26,27

Organizational Results

Professionals involved with employee training gather a third type of evaluative data to justify the time and

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