The interface of human sciences scholarship with EFNEP

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The interface of human sciences scholarship with
EFNEP

• Marc Braverman
• Associate Dean, Extension Outreach
• College of Health and Human Sciences
• Oregon State University

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Two components of scholarship

• Careful systematic inquiry
• Dissemination of knowledge to advance a field

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Why do scholarship? (1 of 2)

• Benefits
• Improve our EFNEP programs
• Validate the value of EFNEP
• Visibility for EFNEP
• Advance the discipline beyond our own EFNEP
  program
• Help our individual faculty in their academic
  careers

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Why do scholarship? (2 of 2)

• Costs and obstacles
• Burdens on EFNEP program participants
• Diversity in the information requirements of
  stakeholders Who is being served?
• The need for extra resources whos going to pay
  for the research?
• Partial redirection of program priorities
• Dealing with IRBs

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Developing a research agenda

• 1. Audiences
• Ourselves EFNEP faculty, staff and
  administrators
• Legislators and their staffs
• Academic community
• Program practitioner community
• Media

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Developing a research agenda

• 2. Types of research studies
• Analyses of target audiences
• Learning studies
• Effective teaching strategies
• Program outcome studies
• Identification of mediation processes
• Cost analysis studies
• Measurement studies
• Evaluation design issues

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Developing a research agenda

• 3. Standards of evidence
• Goal attainment
• Demonstration of change in participants or
  communities (consistent with logic models)
• knowledge
• psychosocial correlates attitudes, intentions,
  expectations, etc.
• behaviors
• health outcomes obesity, incidence of disease
• Causality

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Developing a research agenda

• 4. Strategies for disseminating findings
• Reports
• State and federal Web sites
• Conferences
• Journal publication
• Post-publication activities
• Media releases

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Examples of methodological issues

• Design issues
• Exploring the adequacy of competing evaluation
  design options (e.g., Pretest-posttest
  vs. Retrospective Pretest)
• Establishing procedures for estimating a
  programs No Treatment Expectation

• Measurement issues
• Cognitive testing of questionnaire items (e.g.,
  participant interpretations of question wording)
• Validating items vs. validating scales
• Developing psychosocial indicators
• Developing alternatives to generalized self-report

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Research on EFNEP Potentially relevant
disciplines

• Nutrition education
• Public health
• Health psychology
• Educational psychology Learning theory
• Community development
• Organizational development and learning
• Educational design curriculum studies

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Using the researchImportant objectives for
utilization

• Advancing our disciplines (nutrition education
  others)
• Funneling new knowledge back into program
  improvement
• Advocating for EFNEP

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Promoting scholarship in EFNEP Where we stand
now

• Centralizing our research needs and priorities
• Developing a national database of participant
  outcomes
• Developing an item bank of tested and validated
  survey items

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A few recommendations

• 1. Be strategic in developing
• Research emphases
• Research timelines
• 2. Involve our critical stakeholders in the
  determination of our major research questions
• 3. Be prepared to invest time, budget,
  personnel other resources

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A few recommendations

• 4. Plan ahead for research utilization (rather
  than unplanned, sporadic adoption of findings)
• 5. At the federal level Develop dissemination
  strategies and dissemination venues (e.g.,
  conferences, Web links, reports, journal special
  issues, etc.)
• Make the investment worthwhile!