Formative Research for MyPlate Kindergarten Curriculum Materials

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Expiration Date: 1/31/2016

Attachment D – Individual Interview Guide for Teachers

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Section I. Getting to know each other. (15 minutes)

Hello, my name is _____________ and I’m a researcher from the Michael Cohen Group.

We are working with the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service to help them develop lessons and materials about nutrition for kindergarten children. As part of this project, I am interested in learning about your experience with the classroom food preparation activities you recently conducted.

Please know, when I write my report, I will not refer to anyone by name. All data will be identified only by an ID number, not by any name. Your name will never be used in any reports of our research findings except as required by law.

Let’s start with some general questions:

• What do you enjoy most about working with children?

• What are your favorite classroom activities?

• In your classroom, have you conducted many food preparation activities with kindergarteners in the past? What sort of recipes has the class prepared?

  • Where did you get the ideas for the food preparation activity? Was it part of a lesson? Which one?

  • In your experience, what sort of food preparation activities work best with the kindergarten age group?

• What about challenges? Describe some of the challenges you encountered.

• Describe any outside help you have received with food preparation activities in your classroom? How have parents, school foodservice, or community chefs helped out?

• Does your classroom have access to hand washing sinks, refrigerators, or other kitchen equipment? Describe what’s available.

• Does your class have any “rules” about behavior during food preparation activities. If so, what are they?

Section II. In-class Food Preparation Activities (15 minutes)

I’d like to talk about the food preparation activities you did with the children.

• What food preparation activities did your class complete?

• Where did you get the food and supplies need for the activity?

• Describe how you and your class did the food preparation activities?

  • Did the class work in small groups at tables at the same time?

  • Did you work with a small group while the rest of the class did something else?

• Where did you conduct the activities? In the classroom? In the cafeteria?

• Did any other adults assist you? Please describe their role.

• What about the activities worked? What did not?

• How did your students respond to the activities?

  • (Probe: Overall, how interested were students in doing the activities?)

  • (Probe: Were they able to follow the picture recipes? Were they able to perform the tasks as directed? Was anything too challenging for them?)

  • (Probe: Did most students try the recipes they made? What was their reaction? Did you try the recipe? What did you think of it?)

• Were any of the foods used in the recipes new to your students? Were you unfamiliar with any of the foods used? Were any of the foods hard to obtain for the activity?

• Do you think the food preparation activities could help support the learning objective provided (note: each teacher will have different learning objectives, See Attachment N – Food Preparation Activity)?

  • Please explain why or why not?

• How much time did it take for the class to complete each food preparation activity?

  • How do you feel about the amount of time required?

• Were the provided materials enough for you to successfully complete the activities?

  • (Probe: Were the instructions clear? Were the illustrations clear?)

  • (Probe: Were the steps clear for you? Were they clear for the children?)

  • What other information and/or resources would make the activities easier to complete?

• How was the overall look and feel of the materials provided?

• Would you do this activity again? Why / Why not?

• If you could change one thing to make these activities better, what would it be?

• Would you recommend these food preparation activities to other teachers?

  • Why, or why not?

You have been great and have helped me a lot. Thanks so much for talking with me today!