Page 280 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

expense to the organization. Management may want to know how training will positively benefit the
organization in relation to the cost. Results in terms of the following aspects may be attributed, at least in
part, to training: improved morale, improved efficiency or productivity, improved quality of work, better
customer satisfaction, less employee turnover, fewer accidents or worker’s compensation claims, better
attendance, dollar savings, number of employee errors, number of grievances, amount of overtime, and the
like. Did changing employees’ behavior on the job improve business results? If not, it is not useful.

Learning

Whether learning has taken place is a separate question, even if the program rated highly on entertainment
value. The learning of principles, facts, attitudes, values, and skills should be evaluated on an objective basis,
and this task is more complex. If the learning objectives are written in terms of measurable performance, they
serve as the source of the evaluation. To what degree were the objectives achieved by the learner?

Whether a person has succeeded in learning can be determined by developing situations, or test items,
based on the objectives of instruction. A program is ineffective if it has not achieved its objectives. It is
important for the test items to match the objectives in performance and conditions discussed in Chapter 11. If
they do not match the objectives, it is not possible to assess whether instruction was successful, that is,
whether the learner learned what was intended.

Mager pointed out that several obstacles must be overcome to assess the results of instruction successfully.
Some obstacles are caused by poorly written objectives, whereas others result from attitudes and beliefs on the
part of instructors who use inappropriate test items.20

One of the problems in evaluation results from inadequately written objectives. If the performance is not
stated, if conditions are omitted, and if the criterion is missing, it will be difficult to create a test situation. If
these deficiencies are discovered, the first step is to rewrite the objective. Mager suggested a series of steps to
select appropriate test items27:

1. Note the performance (what the person will be able to say or do) stated in the objective. Match the performance and conditions of the test
item to those of the objective.

2. Check whether the performance is a main intent or an indicator. If the performance is the main intent, determine whether it is covert
(invisible) or overt (visible, audible).

3. If the performance is covert, such as solving a problem, check for an indicator behavior, a visible or audible activity by which the performance
can be inferred.

4. Test for the overt indicator in objectives containing one rather than the main performance.

The first step is to see whether the performance specified in the test item is the same as that specified in the
objective. If they do not match, the test item must be revised, since it will not indicate whether the objective
has been accomplished. If the objective states that the performance is “to plan low-fat menus” or “to operate
the dish machine,” for example, the test should involve planning menus or operating the dish machine. It
would be inappropriate to ask the learner to discuss the principles of writing menus or to label the parts of the
dish machine on a diagram.

In addition to matching performance, the test should use the same specific circumstances or conditions that
are specified in the objective.

EXAMPLE (Given the disassembled parts of the meat slicer) is able to reassemble the parts in correct

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