• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.385-399
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study was to compare the perception of nutritional education among school administrators, parents, and school nutrition teachers at an elementary school. Questionnaires were distributed to 450 subjects (150 school nutrition teachers, 150 school administrators, and 150 parents) from June 15 to June 30, 2009, and 309 (84 school nutrition teachers, 104 administrators, and 121 parents) were analyzed. The results of this study were as follows. First, school nutrition teachers' perceived level (4.54) of importance of nutritional education was significantly (P<0.001) higher compared to school administrators (4.10) and parents (3.97). Second, demand for revitalization of nutritional education as perceived by parents (3.23) was significantly (P<0.001) higher compared to school nutrition teachers (2.61) and school administrators (2.51). Third, parents' satisfaction level of elementary school nutritional education was 3.23, followed by those of school administrators (2.83) and school nutrition teachers (2.50). There were significant differences in terms of satisfaction of elementary school nutritional education between school administrators, parents, and school nutrition teachers (P<0.001). Fourth, school nutrition teachers' demand for revitalization of nutritional education was significantly (P<0.001) higher at 4.24 compared to both parents (3.76) and school administrators (3.46). Fifth, with regards to bolstering nutritional education in elementary schools, it was deemed necessary for each school to have a school nutrition teacher. In conclusion, perception of nutritional education varied among school administrators, parents, and school nutrition teachers. In conclusion, a communication network between school administrators, parents, and school nutrition teachers should be established for revitalization of nutritional education at elementary schools.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.290-299
• /
• 2019

Objectives: This study examined the nutrition teachers' and parents' recognition of environmentally-friendly agricultural products (EAPs) used in school foodservice. Methods: A questionnaire survey was given to 128 school foodservice nutrition teachers in Seongnam and 189 parents from Oct. 16 to Oct. 31, 2018 at Seongnam in Gyeonggi province. The survey included information on the recognition, satisfaction, and improvement of EAPs, and the results of the two groups were compared. Results: A comparison of the recognition of EAPs showed that nutrition teachers knew more about the EAPs and local government support in school foodservice than the parents. On the other hand, the parents were more aware than the nutrition teachers in that children have a higher affinity for EAPs than for general agricultural products in the school foodservice. A comparison of the level of satisfaction with the EAPs by nutrition teachers and parents revealed the nutrition teachers to be significantly more satisfied than parents in terms of the color, taste and nutrition of EAPs. Among the items that should be provided with EAPs, more than 50% of each group of nutrition teachers and parents answered that vegetables must be provided first. Some 70.9% of nutrition teachers and 84.5% of parents were aware of the certification standards of EAPs. The nutrition teachers had showed a slightly higher score than the parents in the certification system (3.51 vs. 3.25). In terms of improving the EAPs, 36.2% of nutrition teachers answered a reasonable price preferentially, whereas 56.4% of parents answered maintaining quality. In the expected effects of using EAPs, 57.9% of nutrition teachers answered an improvement of parents' satisfaction on the school foodservice. On the other hand, 38.0% of parents answered an improvement of children' satisfaction on school foodservice. Conclusions: Nutrition teachers and parents need to be educated on the certification systems that would enhance the trust in EAPs.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.155-179
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this study was to compare the task elements categorized into required and additional man power's implemental between present and future-oriented duties of school nutrition teachers. The survey consisted of five duties, 27 tasks, 93 task elements, and 270 work details in the task elements of school nutrition teachers. A pilot-test was first conducted on nutrition teachers to confirm the survey contents, and then a main survey was performed on 240 school nutrition teachers, using a self-administrated online method, from July 16 to September 5, 2016. To compare present and future-oriented tasks, frequency analyses were conducted. Work details in the task elements were categorized into 'required' and 'additional man power's implemental', depending on school nutrition teachers' responses, based on a 50% cut-off percentage. The results showed that 13 work details among 60 work details (21.7%) in the 'Duty C. Safety and hygiene management of school foodservice', and 15 work details out of 106 work details (14.2%) in 'Duty B. Foodservice management practices' were identified as additional man power's implemental in future oriented duties. As to 'Duty A. Nutrition management', only three work details among 55 work details (5.5%) were identified as additional man power's implemental. On the other hand, all work details in 'Duty D. Nutrition diet education and counseling and 'Duty E. Reinforce professionalism' were identified as "required" as school nutrition teachers' duties. These findings imply that school nutrition teachers perceive nutrition management and education as their primary duties to the fulfill school foodservice' mission of promoting students' health and fostering students' dietary behaviors. The study offers practical and governmental implications, which can encourage school nutrition teachers to perform their primary duties.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.430-441
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study was to determine the association between school administrator support as perceived by nutrition teachers (dietitians) and job satisfaction in order to provide data concerning efficient job performance of nutrition teachers, to determine effects of school administrator support on job satisfaction in nutrition teachers, and to provide basic data that could help improve school meals. Major supporters of nutrition teachers (dietitians) were chief administrators (55.3%), principals (27.2%), assistant principals (15.0%), and managers in charge (2.4%). Nutrition teachers (dietitians) scored 3.38 for perception of school administrator support, 3.66 for emotional support, 3.27 for informational support, 3.22 for instrumental support, and 3.11 for evaluation support. Support of nutrition teachers (dietitians) by school managers included emotional support (3.66)>informational support (3.27)>instrumental support (3.22)>evaluative support (3.11). Nutrition teachers (dietitians) scored 3.37 for job satisfaction, as follows: work performance (4.19)>interpersonal relationships (3.39)>job satisfaction in general (3.37)>job itself (3.29)>job environment (3.07)>performance rating and benefits system (2.70). Statistically significant correlation was observed between perception of school administrator support and job satisfaction (r= .771, p< .01). Therefore, school administrators are necessary to provide evaluative supports to nutrition teachers (dietitians), performance assessment, employee benefit packages, and improvement of school meal plans and quality.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.12-24
• /
• 2016

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to investigate the school nutrition teachers' perception on their job and to find out recommendations needed for its improvement in order to provide a quality foodservice and nutrition education at schools. Methods: A total of 219 school nutrition teachers in Seoul were surveyed using selfadministered questionnaires. Results: The perceived importance of the 16 job duties was rated 3.8 based on a 5-point scale (1: very unimportant - 5: very important). The importance of six duties including nutrition management, production management, nutrition education, and food safety management were rated over 4 point but that of record-keeping for documents, official reporting, and service management was rated the lowest. Importance-Performance Analysis showed that nutrition management, receiving/storage management, production management, menu management, food safety management, and equipment/facilities management should be emphasized to maintain the current performance of duties. The performance of the nutrition education and counseling needed to be improved since the importance scores were greater than average but the performance scores were lower than the average. Official reporting and miscellaneous jobs were rated the highest for simplification need. More than half of the respondents agreed that equipment/facilities management, miscellaneous jobs, service staff supervision, and service line supervision could be allocated to other school departments. Conclusions: School nutrition teachers should invest more time and resources on their core job duties such as nutrition management, production management, food safety management, and nutrition education for providing quality foodservice and nutrition education. To reflect the environmental changes of school foodservice, a reasonable staffing index of school nutrition teachers needs to be developed. In addition, hiring an assistant or implementing school nutrition teacher internship programs can be useful to reduce workloads of the nutrition teachers.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.787-798
• /
• 1998

This study is an analysis on how current elementary teachers think about nutrition education, how they are teaching it, and problems that have occurred. The main purpose of this analysis was to deal with future problems in nutrition education by analyzing the present situation . The survey was done on 544 currently working elementary school teachers. from the 9 education departments within Seoul, 2 schools were chosen from each department by stratified random sampling. The survey used a questionnaire that was passed out personally to teachers from September 1, 1997 to the 19th. The 544 usable questionnaires were analyzed by using the teachers had nutrition education training and the average score of nutrition knowledge was 13.30 $\pm$2.73 out of 20. Nutrition education was being taught as apart of other subjects in 87.9% of the schools, and mainly by lecture. Audio visuals aids were used by 53.7% of the teachers and the most common was the VTR. Nutrition education was taught as a part of physical education and 41.5% were using teacher guides to help them. 91.9% of the teachers supported the idea of nutrition education in elementary schools. Nutrition education was supported by 80. 0% of teachers to begin when children are in kindergarten, proving that early nutrition education is supported. The analysis showed that nutrition education should be taught by parents(29.4%) , teachers(29.2%), and nutritionists(25.9%) relating that family , education, and school lunch programs should tie in with each other. 96.7% of the teachers responded that they would teach nutrition education. However, 41.0% disagreed with having a separate course for nutrition education . Proper eating habits, nutrition and its diseases, and growth with nutrition were the main categories within nutrition education and the most effect method was thought to have audio visuals, guides for teachers , and to link the subject matter with school lunch programs. The teachers main responses to problems with children were that they are too much instant food, did not eat in a variety , and had no manners in eating. Ironically, the believed that malnutrition, fainting and growth stunt were not important nutrition problems.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.37 no.10
• /
• pp.928-937
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this study was to investigate the elementary school teacher's status and recognition of nutrition education (NE) in Incheon. A cross-sectional study was carried out using a self-administered questionnaire and subjects were 147 elementary school teachers. The results are as follows. Only 9.5% of the teachers had training in NE and 71.4% of the teachers with training increased concern about NE after training. As for experience of NE, 61.6% of the teachers experienced NE and more than half of them gave NE less than twice per month. There was a significant difference in reason for not giving NE between subgroups by teaching career; 57.7% of the teachers with career more than 10 years did not give NE due to too much other work. As for existence of nutrition educator in school, 48.9% of the teachers recognized its existence and 91.3% of them answered that dietitians have done NE. For correction of unbalanced diet, good table manner, and nutrition and growth, 97.9% of the teachers answered that NE is necessary in elementary school. As for proper time to start NE, 57.5% of the teachers answered kindergarten and 39,7% answered lower grade of elementary school. As for effective type for NE, 47.3% of the teachers answered NE as a part of other subject and 28.1 % answered NE as a separate subject. Also 69.8% of the teachers answered dietitian as suitable person for NE. As for newly establishing a NE subject, 37.9% of the teachers disagreed and as for most effective method for NE, 73.3% answered NE linked with school lunch program. Most of teachers recognized elementary school students' eating habit problem severe and change of their eating habit such as various food choice, no plate waste and good table manner after school lunch program. Therefore, it should be nationally supported that a standardized NE program is developed and coordinated among teachers, school lunch dietitian as NE specialist, family and community for elementary students' health and well-being.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.233-242
• /
• 2013

The aim of this study was to investigate how implementation of direct nutrition education differs between nutrition teachers and dietitians in Gyeonggi Area. In this study, we collected data from 107 nutrition teachers and 129 dietitians in 2012. Among those who have answered they implemented direct nutrition education for the last one year, 36% were nutrition teachers and 10% were dietitians (p < 0.05). Among subjects who implemented direct education, a significantly greater percentage of nutrition teachers used a class as an education time to conduct creative hands-on-activity compare to dietitians (p < 0.05). However, for most dietitians, school meal time was more commonly used for direct nutrition education. When asked to make a suggestion regarding improvement for school nutrition education, the highest rate of people chose simplification of school administrative work (4.68 points) was needed. Developing nutrition education (4.55 points) showed the next highest rate. The rest of the answers were the following order; regular training of teaching methods (4.50 points), increasing awareness of school teachers (4.50 points), improving school facilities and financial support (4.47 points), preparing teaching plan (4.46 points), providing incentive for direct education (4.26 points), organizing regular class for nutrition education (4.17 points), and placing nutrition teachers (4.16 points). This study provides useful information including manageable workload of nutrition teachers and dietitians, capacity building and supportive school environment to be delivered with respect to nutrition education system in South Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.525-532
• /
• 2009

School dietitians are divided into two groups according to their status of employment, school nutrition teachers and dietitians, with the latter being irregularly employed by the institution. In this study, the job satisfaction, communication ability, work performance and importance in feeding services and dietetic counseling of both groups were compared. To accomplish this, 100 regularly employed school nutrition teachers (regularly employed) and 101 dietitians (irregularly employed) were surveyed by questionnaire. The results were as follows: (1) The irregularly employed dietitians showed a lower level of job satisfaction than the school nutrition teachers. This was likely because the school nutrition teachers belonged to the strong inner circle of school teachers and cafeteria workers, and had enough time to prepare for class lectures and consultancy. Conversely, the irregularly employed dietitians generally handle extra office work in addition to their primary duties. Despite these differences, both parties agreed that it was necessary to change the work system. Additionally, school dietitians reported that they had little opportunity for further training for career development. (2) Both parties had good communication skills; however, the irregularly employed dietitians had more conflicts with other staff members than the regular employees. (3) Job performance and job importance level was compared among employees involved in school feeding services and nutrition counseling. No significant differences were observed between dietitians and nutrition teachers in either group (p<0.05). However, the school nutrition teachers showed better skills than school dietitian with respect to public relations, running independent counseling offices, and using effective tools and materials. Job performance level was lower when compared to job importance level for all items, which meant the job was not well performed when compared to the work importance awareness.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.141-152
• /
• 2020

Homeroom teachers are not usually nutrition professionals, but they spend a lot of time with students in elementary school classrooms. This study was conducted to determine the association of homeroom teachers' nutrition education with the dietary habits of their classroom children. The subjects were 131 homeroom teachers and their 1,102 children from 17 elementary schools in Gyeonggi, Korea. Self-administered questionnaires to collect information on dietary habits were conducted in December 2016. The dietary habits were determined with the adherences to the Dietary Guidelines for Adults and Children, respectively, by coding the better diet life with a higher score. The significances between groups according to teachers' implementation of nutrition education (106 implemented, 25 not implemented) were analyzed by using SPSS at P<0.05. Implementing nutrition education was not associated with the dietary habits of teachers themselves, but their students. Therefore, the students of teachers who implemented nutrition education had significantly higher adherence to 8 items out of 19 items (P<0.05, P<0.01). More of the students considered themselves as non-picky eaters (P<0.05), tried to eat all the foods served at school lunch even when it contained unwanted ingredients (P<0.01), and agreed on the need of nutrition education (P<0.01), as compared to their counterparts. Conclusively, this study suggests that nutrition education delivered by homeroom teachers may be associated with more desirable dietary habits of students, even though homeroom teachers are not nutrition professionals. Therefore, efforts should be undertaken to develop and provide proper contents for homeroom teachers to use in nutrition education for elementary students.