Selecting Recipes to Enhance Educational Programming--Application of Formative Research Methods

Introduction

Recipe demonstration, sampling, and distribution often accompany client programming and are intended to reinforce educational messages (Reed & Schuster, 2002). Formative research, research that occurs during the design and implementation of a program (Brown & Gerhardt, 2002), can be used when selecting recipes to enhance an educational experience. Such an approach was used to select recipes to enhance the acceptance of soyfoods among Family and Consumer Science educators and their clients.

Methods

Selection of Preliminary Recipes

As part of a professional development training workshop, soyfood product sampling was conducted. The purpose of the product sampling was to solicit educators' opinions about soyfood recipes in order to enhance education materials under development.

To begin this process, several Internet sites dedicated to soyfood recipes and soyfood cookbooks were reviewed. Preliminary recipes were selected out of approximately 50 reviewed recipes. Once these recipes were selected, they were evaluated for food safety issues, transportability of the final product, and cost of the recipe. If any recipe posed a problem or concern in any of these areas, it was eliminated.

Selection of Viable Recipes

After the recipes were selected based on the aforementioned criteria, they were prepared in order to observe the complexity of the recipes and to evaluate the probable acceptance of the appearances and tastes of the final products. No major problems with the recipes were noted. Therefore, at this point, recipes were deemed viable. Permission to use these recipes as part of our professional development workshop and soy product sampling was obtained from the United Soybean Board. The recipes were divided into four categories, consistent with the educational goals of our program: similar recipe comparison, single soyfood item recipe, soyfood item as an ingredient recipe, and recipe modification using a soyfood item.

Selection of Final Recipes

An evaluation instrument was developed based on the viable recipes. The goal of the evaluation instrument was to determine nutrition educators' attitudes toward soyfood products both before and after tasting recipes prepared with soy products. Also, the evaluation instrument asked the educators to rank which recipe category they felt was most effective in enhancing the acceptance of soy products.

In order to use human subjects for our product sampling, we obtained Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval through the Office of Research Compliance, part of the Office of the Vice President for Research at Texas A&M University.

Nutrition educators were consulted about the acceptability of using food sampling demonstrations as part of a nutrition education curriculum. During this consultation, the logistics of conducting food product sampling were addressed. Also, at this time the evaluation instrument was examined for appropriateness for the task of soliciting educators' opinions about soyfood recipes. No recipes were altered at this time, but the order in which each soyfood product was presented was changed based on feedback received during this consultation.

As part of a professional development workshop, educator input was solicited from Family and Consumer Science Texas Cooperative Extension agents. During this workshop, the agents were each asked to complete an evaluation instrument. Prior to any product sampling, they were asked to answer questions regarding their attitudes toward soy products (Table 1).

Each agent was then given a sample product made from the aforementioned recipes. They were asked to rank how well they liked each sample on a Likert scale. They were also asked to rank how likely they thought each recipe category would enhance consumers' acceptance of soyfoods (Table 2). Last, after tasting the soyfood samples, the agents were each asked to answer the questions regarding their attitudes toward soy products again. At the end of the professional development workshop, the agents were given the recipes used for the product sampling to include in their nutrition lesson presentations.

Approximately 10 weeks after the professional development workshop in which the educators' inputs were captured, follow-up structured interviews were conducted via telephone to determine if the agents were using soyfood product sampling as part of their pilot testing of the related curriculum. The educators reported using the recipes provided for their consumer education presentations. Some educators were continuing to modify certain recipes to their and the consumers' needs. Agents commented that the consumers enjoyed the product sampling demonstrations and seemed very engaged in the nutrition lessons when product sampling was used.

Discussion and Conclusion

The use of recipes and food demonstrations should be consistent with identified educational goals and objectives. Our goal was to enhance the acceptance of soyfoods among educators and their clients. Our process resulted in a stepwise culling of recipes. Also, we identified recipe categories that supported our learning goal: recipes that compare similar products for acceptability, recipes for the preparation of a soyfood, recipes using soyfood as an ingredient, and recipe modifications/substitutions using soy ingredients.

We enabled input from diverse members of the education team, peer educators, Cooperative Extension Agents, and clients, by soliciting informal and formal feedback through methods such as survey instruments, informal discussions, and structured interviews. This and similar approaches to recipe selection may engage educators in the judicious use of recipes to augment educational programming.

Acknowledgments

Funding for this project was provided by the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture pursuant to a grant, 2001-52102-11255, entitled Safety, Efficacy and Optimal Dosage of Soy Isoflavones to Prevent Osteoporosis.

References

Brown, K. G., & Gerhardt, M. W. (2002). Formative evaluation: An integrative practice model and case study. Personnel Psychology, 55, 951.

Reed, D. B., & Schuster, E. (2002). Recipe checklist: A tool to aid development of recipes for audiences with limited resources. Journal of Extension [On-line]. 40(6). Available at: http://www.joe.org/joe/2002december/tt4.shtml