Ecologic study of children's use of a computer nutrition education program

The purpose of this research was to describe the context created by student s as they worked ill groups on a nutrition computer-assisted instruction (C AI) program. Students worked on the program in groups of three. Observation al methods were used to collect data from students in two sixth-grade class rooms that were part of an experimental program designed to restructure the educational process. Thirty-two students, from 12 groups, were observed as they completed the program. The groups were assigned by the teachers accor ding to standard principles of cooperative learning. Students completed "Sh ip to Shore," a program designed specifically for this research. The progra m required three to five 50-minute classroom periods to complete. The objec tives of the program were to change children's knowledge structure of basic nutrition concepts and to increase children's critical thinking skills rel ated to nutrition concepts. We collected observational data focused on thre e domains: (1) student-computer interaction, (2) student-student interactio n, and (3) students' thinking and learning skills. Grounded theory methods were used to analyze the data. Specifically, the constant-comparative metho d was used to develop open coding categories, defined by properties and des cribed by dimensions. The open coding categories were in turn used in axial coding to differentiate students' learning styles. Five styles of student interaction were defined. These included (1) dominant directors (n = 6; 19% ), (2) passive actors (n = 5; 16%), (3) action-oriented students (n = 7; 22 %), (4) content-oriented students (n = 8; 25%), and (5) problem solvers (n = 5; 16%). The "student style" groups were somewhat gender specific. The do minant directors and passive actors were girls and the action-oriented and content-oriented students were boys. The problem solvers group was mixed ge nder. Children's responses to computer-based nutrition education are highly variable. Based on the results of this research, nutrition educators may r ecommend that nutrition CAI programs be implemented in mixed gender groups.