Learning about healthy diet in Food and Health? - a national teacher survey

Our results emphasize that proper FH education has the learning potential to guide the students into a more health promoting direction by supporting the student’s life skills.

Background:
Food and Health (FH) is an important public health subject. After the introduction of new national curricula in 2020, limited evidence is available on teaching practices of FH. The main aim of this TEACHFOOD study is to examine characteristics of teaching practices within the core element “Healthy diet” and the related interdisciplinary theme “Health and life skills” among primary and lower secondary FH teachers in Norway. The second aim is to investigate whether there are differences in teaching practices according to groups of educational levels in FH.
Methods: A survey was aimed at FH teachers who have previously taught or currently teach FH subject for adolescents according to new curriculum. School leaders in combined primary and lower secondary schools or the latter were emailed (n=1199), and calls were made on FH social media sites. The survey themes were: background teacher characteristics, thematic choices and foods prepared in their teaching, the life skills perspective, and the emphasis on national dietary guidelines in practical teaching. Descriptive statistics were applied and differences of responses amongst teachers with varying degrees of ECTS credits (no credits, ≤ 30 ECTS and > 30 ECTS) in FH were analyzed by SPSS. The study was approved by SIKT and our Faculty Research Ethics Committee.
Results: Teachers (n=306) were mainly experienced female teachers of which 25,5 % had no credits in FH. Hygiene and food safety and cooking were the most prioritized thematic contents. Dietary knowledge and understanding the relationship between diet and health were more prioritized themes by teachers having 30 ECTS FH education as compared to those having no ECTS at all. In general, teachers perceived that their teaching developed students’ cooking skills the most. Teachers having studied 30 ECTS FH perceived to a higher degree than those having no ECTS, that their students gained good insight into national dietary guidelines. Teachers having studied ≤ 30 ECTS perceived that their teaching made students more able to take more healthy food choices compared to those having studied no ECTS points. Vegetables were most frequently used by teachers. Fish and seafood were more frequently used by teachers having studied FH (> 30 ECTS and ≤ 30 groups), and fine-grain products, full fat milk and dairy products were less frequently used by them. Teachers having studied FH emphasized more dietary recommendations than those who had no ECTS credits on FH.
Conclusions: There are indications that teaching practices in FH vary and that FH credits are positively associated with some more health promoting teaching practices.