State Agencies (Prinicpal & Teachers) REV 2

Attachment G – Teacher In-Depth Telephone Interview Guide

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Section I. Getting to know each other (5 minutes)

Hello, my name is _____________ and I’m a researcher from the Michael Cohen Group. We are conducting an independent evaluation of the 5^th and 6^th Grade Garden-Based Nutrition Curriculum that is taking place in your school. As part of that evaluation, I am interested in learning about your experience with the 5^th and 6^th Grade Garden-Based Nutrition Curriculum lesson plans.

I want to assure you that your comments will be kept secure and only used for research purposes, except as otherwise required by law. Your name will not be divulged in any reports of this research, so please feel free to speak openly and honestly. Any questions before we begin?

Let’s start with some general questions:

• What are your favorite activities in the classroom?

(Probe: What is it about these activities that you enjoy?)

• What are the most challenging aspects of your classroom?

• What are some things that take up the most time during the school day?

• What Curriculum do you use in your class?

(Probe: Do you have input in your curriculum, if not, where do you get it?)

I want to switch gears for a minute. We’re interested in learning about the 5^th and 6^th Grade Garden-Based Nutrition Curriculum lesson plans and how it was implemented in your classroom.

Section II. Experience with the 5^th and 6^th Grade Garden-Based Nutrition Curriculum (15 Minutes)

1. How much experience have you had teaching kids about nutrition and making healthy food choices?

• (Probe: What have you taught in the past? Was that a separate course or was integrated into other subjects e.g. math, science etc.)

2. How much experience have you had using the school garden as a place for learning?

• (Probe: What types of activities have you done? What subjects?)

3. How was your experience using the school garden in this curriculum?

• (Probe: Tell me about your biggest success and biggest challenge.)

4. How comfortable did you feel with integrating 5^th and 6^th Grade Garden-Based Nutrition Curriculum into your teaching?

• (Probe: Why?)

5. What was your experience with the Garden “How-to Guide”?

• (Probe: Did it provide adequate information? Was it easy to understand?)

6. What was your experience preparing and leading the food tasting with students?

• (Probe: Were the children open-minded to trying new produce? How easy or difficult was it to integrate into class time?)

7. What was your experience working with the food service staff?

• (Probe: How were the students, were they receptive to creating tips with the staff? Did this partnership create additional learning opportunities?)

8. What was your experience with the wikis and blogs?

• (Probe: What did parents use these tools for? Did they communicate about students’ work? Home experiences?)

9. To what extent did parents encourage the home nutrition assignments?

• (Probe: Were there certain kinds of things they enjoyed more? If so, what? If not, why don’t you think they did the assignments at home?)

10. To what extent did the curriculum address the education standards?

• (Probe: Are there certain subjects (e.g. math, science etc.) that the curriculum addressed particularly well? Are there certain subjects that the curriculum addresses less well?)

Section III. Student Perception (5 minutes)

Now we’re going to talk about how the students responded to the 5^th and 6^th Grade Garden-Based Nutrition Curriculum.

1. What do you think your students learned from this experience?

2. To what extent were students receptive to the Garden-based experiments?

• (Probe: Did they enjoy working in the garden?

3. Were there certain concepts that the students had difficulty with?

• (Probe: Why, what specifically?)

4. Was this curriculum meaningful and relevant for the students?

• (Probe: Why, or why not?)

Section VI. Closing (5 minutes)

1. What changes or modifications, if any, would you suggest to improve the 5^th and 6^th Grade Garden-Based Nutrition Curriculum?

• (Probe: Why those? What about additional training? More materials? More support?)

2. Would you consider using this curriculum in the future?

• (Probe: Why, or why not?)

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