Page 286 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

Self-reports, self-evaluation, and self-monitoring are another approach to evaluation. In the affective domain,
written questions or statements are presented and the individual supplies responses. “What changes, if any,
have you made in your food choices?” “What are you doing differently?” Self-reports, such as a 3-day food
record, have been used to measure behavioral change. Responses may be distorted or biased if the individual
can ascertain the acceptable answer.

All methods of evaluation have advantages and limitations, which need to be considered. Although
evaluation may not provide proof that an intervention and education worked, it does produce a great deal of
evidence.

CASE ANALYSIS 4

What type of evaluation(s) would you use for the prenatal nutrition class?

Reliability and Validity

The concepts of reliability and validity are essential to the measurement of the effectiveness of nutrition
education outcomes and employee learning. Validity indicates whether we are measuring what we intend to
measure. There are different types of validity, such as content-related, construct-related, and criterion-related
(concurrent and predictive) validity, all of which help to “defend” the validity of the instrument. Content-
related validity, which is the simplest and perhaps the most important, refers to whether the test items or
questions correspond to the subject matter or purpose of instruction or to the knowledge, skills, or objectives
they are supposed to measure for a specific audience by culture, age, literacy level, and the like. If one is
interested in determining knowledge of dietary fiber, for example, are the questions appropriate in content?

Reliability refers to the consistency and accuracy with which a test or device measures something in the
same way in each situation or over time. For example, if a test is given twice to the same students to sample
the same abilities, the students should be placed in the same relative position to others each time if the test is
reliable. Methods for determining the reliability and validity of tests may be found in the educational
literature.27

In all cases, keep in mind that the measuring device should assess whether the learner has attained the
requisite knowledge, skill, or competence needed and whether behavior has changed. Pretesting evaluation
instruments with the intended audience is essential. If the learner has not attained the intended knowledge or
skill, additional learning may be indicated.

After the data from evaluation are collected, they should be compiled and analyzed. The statistical analysis
of data is a lengthy subject of its own beyond the scope of this book. Future plans or programs may be
modified based on the results of the evaluation. Results should be communicated through evaluation reports
to others such as participants, management staff, decision makers, and future learners.21,27

Lesson Plans and Program Plans

A lesson plan is a written summary of information about a unit of instruction. It is prepared and used by the
instructor. Various formats for lesson plans are available, but the content is essentially the same. A lesson plan

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