SNAP Teen Nutrition Pilot Test (State Agencies - Teachers)

Attachment D – MODERATOR PRE – DISCUSSION GUIDE FOR FOCUS GROUPS WITH HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS OMB No. 0584-0606
Exp. Date 03/31/2019

Attachment D

Moderator PRE – Discussion Guide for Focus Groups with High School Teachers

Timing: 90 minutes

OMB BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0584-0606. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 90 minutes (1.5 hours) per response for the entire focus group, including time to review instructions, search existing data resources, gather and maintain the data needed and complete and review the collection of information.

FOR OMB: All language in the survey that is BOLD and/or IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS is language for the moderator and OMB review only.

I. INTRODUCTION 15 minutes

1. Moderator introduction:

   1. My name is [INSERT]. I’m a researcher and trained moderator with KRC Research. Thank you so much for agreeing to participate in today’s discussion.

   2. We are conducting these discussions with students and teachers in the locations of the pilot test.

   3. Today’s conversation is about the Teen Nutrition and Physical Activity Program and your expectations. The discussion will be about an hour and a half long. Everything you say is private and no individual will be identified.

   4. I’m not an expert on food, nutrition, and exercise. I’m here to guide the discussion and hear your thoughts, ideas, and opinions. All of you are the experts today. To get started, let me explain how our discussion will work today:

      1. There are no right or wrong answers—we want to hear what all of you personally think.

      2. I’d like to hear from everyone here. Please speak one at a time, and let everyone have some time to speak. You may have different opinions. That’s ok--we want to hear from all of you. All of your opinions are important.

      3. We’re recording the discussion in an audio format. This is so I won’t need to slow down to take notes. With the recording, I’ll have an accurate record of the conversation when I’m summarizing the discussion in a report for FNS. Again, no individuals will be identified with the information that is shared with FNS.

      4. Any questions?

2. Participant introductions:

   1. To start, let’s go around the table. Briefly, I’d like each of you to tell us your first name, what your role at your school is and your favorite thing about being an educator.

II. TEACHING MOTIVATIONS, CHALLENGES WITH HEALTH CLASS 30 minutes

FOR OMB - OBJECTIVE OF THIS SECTION: To gain insight on the experiences and challenges teachers and their students face with their current health class.

1. What would you say is unique or interesting about your school and the students who attend? Tell us a little bit about your school and the students.

2. What do you enjoy about teaching, generally?

   1. What about health classes? How do you like teaching those classes?

   2. What do you enjoy about working in your school, specifically?

3. Can you describe the content of the most recent health course/unit you taught? (PROBE AS NECESSARY)

   1. Did it include nutrition? Physical activity? Anything else?

   2. How long did the (SPECIFY WHICH ONE THEY ARE DISCUSSING: nutrition/physical activity/nutrition and physical activity/nutrition, physical activity, etc.) unit last? How many times per week or per month do you meet?

   3. How is the course organized? How many units or lessons are there?

      1. What kinds of students generally take the course? Is it an elective or is it required? Do you ever hear what students say about it?

4. Tell us about your experience teaching that course. (PROBE)

   1. From your perspective, what are your students’ reactions to the overall course/unit? Are they interested and engaged, or pre-occupied with other things and bored?

      1. PROBE: What are their reactions to the nutrition unit? The physical activity unit?

   2. Are there topics, other than the ones currently covered, that students express interest in talking about when it comes to health, nutrition, and physical activity? What are they most interested in?

5. What are the biggest challenges you face in teaching health class today?

   1. (PROBE AS NECESSARY) What about in the classroom – what specific challenges do you face there?

   2. What about on the administrative side? How difficult or easy is it to implement a health course?

      1. To what extent would it be easier or more difficult to include health as an option in overall course offerings? A requirement?

   3. What challenges, if any, do the teachers in your school face when it comes to teaching health?

      1. What steps are required to implement a new health course/unit? Is the process streamlined, or could it be more efficient?

6. Thinking about your students, what are some of the big challenges they are facing today in terms of leading a healthy lifestyle? (PROBE ON: time, money, social stigma, lack of resources, etc.)

   1. In your role as an educator, how do you help them deal with these challenges?

      1. Specifically regarding nutrition and physical activity issues that students face, are you able to help them manage these challenges?

   2. What are your most successful strategies for engaging students, promoting learning and overcoming challenges? What makes those strategies successful?

      1. For nutrition? Can you give me an example?

      2. For physical activity challenges? Can you give me an example?

III. CURRICULUM DISCUSSION 35 minutes

FOR OMB - Share the proposed curriculum with the teachers to gauge their reactions and explore expectations and goals.

1. As you know, your health and/or PE class will field test a new curriculum this semester that focuses on nutrition and physical activity. The goal of this new curriculum is to make learning about nutrition and physical activity more interactive, hands on, fun and most of all, informative and applicable to students as they make their own decisions both now and later as they begin their adult lives.

   1. HAND OUT DESCRIPTION. MODERATOR READ: Take a moment and read over this description. As you do so, I would like you to circle things you like or interest you and then cross out things you don’t like so much or that you find confusing. Once we’re all finished, we will discuss this curriculum as a group.

   2. What are your early reactions to this curriculum?

      1. What is most exciting to you about teaching this curriculum?

      2. Is there anything that concerns or worries you about teaching this curriculum?

      3. What do you think the value of a curriculum like this is? To you as the teacher? To your students?

      4. What questions do you have about this curriculum?

      5. In the ideal world, point for me a picture of how you hope this semester will go--describe the ideal curriculum on nutrition and physical activity in your specific setting.

   3. Let’s talk for a bit about how you expect your students to react.

      1. Does this program seem like it will be exciting and/or engaging to students, or not really? How so?

      2. Is this something you think your students will be interested in, or not really? How so?

      3. Will students want to participate in a curriculum like this, or not really?

2. How does this curriculum seem different than other, similar curriculum you have taught?

   1. What about it might be good?

   2. What about it might be challenging or problematic?

3. What are you hoping will be included in this curriculum?

   1. What do you think your students will be most interested in learning about?

   2. What topics would be most useful to them, from their point of view? And from your point of view?

   3. Anything you’re hoping will not be included?

      1. IF NEEDED: Maybe something you have taught before that fell flat or didn’t seem relevant to students?

4. What do you hope the outcome of participating in this curriculum will be?

   1. What do you think students will get out of this?

   2. How valuable do you think something like this is? What makes you say that?

5. Let’s talk about the implementation side of this for a moment. How easy or difficult do you think this will be to teach? And what about on the administration side?

   1. What makes you say that?

   2. Do you have any concerns about this curriculum? IF SO: What are they?

   3. What are some ways these concerns can be eased?

IV. WRAP UP 10 minutes

1. Is there anything you didn’t get to say that you think we should know?

   1. We are going to talk again after you have completed teaching this curriculum this semester. What is the one thing you hope you can say when we meet again and you report on how it went and the outcomes?

HANDOUT A – PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The purpose of this program is to help students understand, learn, and feel comfortable with the components of healthy eating and physical activity so that they can apply those concepts to their lives. The term ‘healthy’ can be sometimes be hard to interpret given all the messages we see about what healthy means in the media and that this program will provide them with the tools necessary to assess what ‘healthy’ means to their lives. It will be important to get students excited about the various hands-on activities as it will allow them to apply lesson learnings in a practical and fun way, culminating in a final presentation. Some of the hands on activities include:

• Creating a meal plan

• “Redoing” a favorite recipe to make it healthier

• Track calories over 3 days and analyze the nutritional intake

• Different and fun ways to be physically active

The Teen Nutrition and Physical Activity program was developed with flexibility in mind and is designed to be scaled to your individual school and classroom needs. While the program can be completed in its entirety, it can also be done by using only individual lessons or activities as you see fit.

The package is organized into two types of in-class content – lessons and activities.

• Lessons – Classroom lesson plans that guide you through specific nutrition and physical activity topics

• Activities – Group activities that focus on bringing to life lesson topics through a hands-on approach

A core component of the Teen Nutrition and Physical Activity Program is the SuperTracker, a helpful diet and physical activity tracking tool. Based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, this tool is designed to assist individuals as they make lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of chronic disease and maintain a healthy weight. Using this free, online tool, students can choose a variety of features to support nutrition and physical activity goals.

USDA/FNS

1.25.2021

Moderator Discussion Guide

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