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Research and evaluation

Cooking skills blog 29: Finding out if your cooking skills courses are ‘working’: Guest blog: what’s the difference between ‘observation’ and ‘third party’?

All members of our cooking skills study group are aiming to use a combination of three different evaluation sources to find out if their courses are ‘working’, by sourcing evaluation materials from 1) the course practitioner (as an ‘observer’), 2) the participant (‘self-reporting’) and 3) and a third source such as a ‘third party’ who …

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Cooking skills blog 27: Cooking skills research: Are you more likely to cook if you have cooking skills?

This blog post looks at a research article which suggests that possessing cooking ‘skills’ is only one of a range of factors associated with whether a person is actually more likely to cook their meals at home. The article explored who is more likely to cook at home and why; and what impact home cooking …

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Cooking skills Blog 26: Finding out if your cooking skills courses are ‘working’: Using both questionnaires and observation as methods

This week, my colleague Jacqui and I have been visiting members of our cooking skills study group and discussing what we have been finding out so far from some of their course evaluation materials. All members of the group are aiming to collect more robust evaluation materials from their courses than they might do usually. …

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Cooking skills blog 22: Finding out if your cooking skills courses are ‘working’: Guest blog by Jacqui McDowell: ‘The impact puzzle’

This week my colleague Jacqui McDowell (who has led on supporting our cooking skills study group on planning the evaluation of their cooking courses) reflects on the challenge of finding the perfect methods or tools to find out the difference your course is making. ‘We all know that we have to evaluate our cooking skills …

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Cooking skills blog 21: new CFHS guide – What’s cooking in Scotland? Part three

Last week, we launched a new guide What’s Cooking in Scotland? Part Three at our cooking skills learning exchange in Edinburgh. Around 40 people attended this, many of whom are running cooking courses within community and voluntary sector organisations in low-income communities. The new guide provides tools and ideas to help you think in more …

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Community-led research into food security and insecurity

Research reports from our three community partners – Central and West Integration Network, Linwood Community Development Trust, and Borders Healthy Living Network are now available. Borders Healthy Living Network has also produced a video, which can be found below. The research aimed to explore aspirations of food security and experience of food insecurity from people …

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Cooking skills blog 19: Finding out if your cooking skills courses are ‘working’: assessments, quizzes and photos

Our cooking skills study group recently met to share their ideas and discuss their evaluation challenges. All of them are confident about using at least two approaches or sources of evaluation such as: Taking observation notes during the course; and Using a participant self-reporting approach by asking participants to fill in questionnaires before and after the …

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Cooking skills blog 16: practitioner guest blog –Gail Hutchison: reflecting on two very different approaches to managing and evaluating cooking courses

Gail is a member of the CFHS cooking skills study group on behalf of both NHS Forth Valley and Edinburgh Community Food. Her role at both is to manage and deliver cooking skills courses, but each organisation runs these differently. Gail explains the challenges and advantages for both her learning and as part of the …

Posted in CFHS Blog, CFHS updates, ​Ideas about developing and running cooking skills courses, News | Areas of Work: , , |

Cooking Skills Blog 15 – Researcher guest blog: developing sustainable cooking courses in partnership with people using a mental health support centre

In this guest blog, Michelle Estradé, research consultant at the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy (SCPHRP) explores how the idea of ‘ownership’ might help develop cooking courses within a mental health support centre that can be sustained in the longer term. ‘Over at SCPHRP we love partnering with community-based organisations to learn …

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Cooking skills blog 12: Finding out if your cooking skills courses are ‘working’: as well as asking participants, who else can you get feedback from?

Our cooking skills study group recently met to discuss how they are getting on with the challenges of thoroughly evaluating their cooking skills courses. For many people that run cooking courses (or any other type of courses), it won’t be necessary to carry out the amount of evaluation that we are expecting from members of …

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