A Survey on Practice of Nutrition Education and Perception for Implementing Nutrition Education by Nutrition Teacher in Elementary Schools

The purpose of this study was to investigate the practice of nutrition education and perceptions for implementing nutrition education in elementary schools. In this survey, 833 dietitians, 808 principals and 3,141 teachers across the country were asked about the present status and problems as well as necessity, methods, education time, education subjects and the proper nutrition educator ratio. The results of the survey showed that only 4.2% of dietitians implemented nutrition education during regular school hours or through special activities. Many subjects responded that the reasons for not practicing nutrition education were systematic problems of lack of time due to too much food service work. Especially, many rural area dietitians responded that the reason was lack of time due to joint management and cooking. Many dietitians, principals and teachers responded that the placement of one nutrition teacher in every school is needed to resolve these problems. Other solutions suggested were the introduction of a dietitian internship, and the modernization of foodservice facilities for principals and teachers. Of those surveyed 98.4 percent of principals and 95.5 percent of teachers responded that nutrition education is urgently needed. Many subjects also responded that the first three years of elementary school are the most proper time for nutrition education and it is best that these lessons are reinforced at least once a month through discretional or special activities. Survey participants responded that the proper ratio for nutrition educators is 400-800 persons for dietitians compared to less than 400 persons for principals. In conclusion, it is hoped that this study will be able to provide a foundation of data for implementing a systematic nutrition education program by nutrition teachers in elementary school.

Perception of the Elementary School Dietitians and Students on Nutrition Education to Set up the Roles of Nutrition Teacher : Centered on Daegu City and Gyeongbuk Province

The purpose of this study was getting information to set up the new roles focused on nutrition education for school dietitians as nutrition teachers. One hundred thirty nine school dietitians and 1169 elementary school children residing in Daegu city and Gyeongbuk province were surveyed for this study. Sixty eight percent of the school dietitians perceived 1st-3rd year of the elementary school is the most proper time to start nutrition education, and 59.0% of them wanted to practice nutrition education as a discretion teaching time. The largest proportion(79.1%) of the school dietitians expected that nutrition education is helpful to get good dietary habit. School dietitians responded that major contents that should be included in the nutrition education was balanced diet, diet and habit, managing healthy weight, dining etiquette, food safety and problems of environmental contamination. Fairly large proportion of the students(64.4%) responded nutrition education is urgently needed. The contents of the nutrition education students wanted most were cooking and healthy diet. Forty six percent of the students perceived school dietitians are responsible for nutrition education and they wanted to have nutrition education as a part of special activity class. The most preferred frequency of nutrition education was 1 hour/week and 46.2% of the students responded they wanted to participate cooking camp.