Date of Award

2001

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Human Resource Education and Workforce Development

First Advisor

Geraldine Holmes

Abstract

A Group Evaluation System was developed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center Family Nutrition Program for use with adult limited resource audiences with diverse literacy skills. Using existing nutrition education resources, an exit survey instrument was developed and tested for validity and reliability. The group administered test format incorporated food associated graphic illustrations and response symbols with written questions read by the instructor. An instrument mock-up was reviewed by an expert panel and two intended-audience focus groups, one with functional reading skills and one without. During data collection, a pretest was conducted with a convenience sample of 96 adult limited-resource individuals with diverse literacy skills. Participants received a lesson on food safety and responded to the group-administered evaluation. The test was followed by a personal interview verifying the structured survey. Descriptive statistics and frequency measures were calculated on quantitative data. The expert panel rated the content validity of the instrument. There was a mean validity score of 4.25 on a scale with 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Qualitative data were analyzed by sorting transcript material into themes. Common suggestions were: use more white space, simplify illustrations, and use common words. Response agreement between the group-administered instruments and personal interviews was 87.22%, while aggregating positive responses increased agreement between tests to 97.28%. Resulting implications are that the associated pictorials and response symbols with orally presented text provided a measurable degree of validity and reliability for group-administered evaluations for limited-resources adult audiences with diverse literacy skills.

ISBN

9780493272207

Pages

195

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.287

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