• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.626-635
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• 2009

The purposes of the study were to identify a comprehensive competency list related to the jobs of nutrition teachers and to compare the competency needs for nutrition teachers and dieticians' competency levels. Job functional areas and a competency list for nutrition teachers were developed based on a review of literature and revised through expert panel reviews. A total of 53 competency statements associated with 11 job functional areas were specified. Questionnaires were distributed to 457 dieticians engaged in school food service and 148 responses were returned (response rate: 32.4%). Excluding incomplete responses, 142 questionnaires were used for data analysis. Approximately half of the respondents were enrolled in an 1-year nutrition teacher certificate program, 25% in a graduate school of nutrition education, and 19% had completed an 1-year nutrition teacher certificate program. The dieticians highly rated requirements of the competencies related to sanitation and employee safety, nutrition counseling, nutrition education, and teaching practices; in contrary, their competency levels for nutrition education, nutrition counseling, and teaching practices were low. Respondents' competency levels were significantly lower than the required competency levels of effective nutrition teachers in all functional areas. A quadratic analysis based on the requirement and self-evaluation of the competencies revealed that priorities of education programs targeting school nutrition teachers or students preparing to be nutrition teachers should be placed on improving competencies related to nutrition education, nutrition counseling, teaching practices, sanitation and employee safety, menu management, and human resource management. These results can be used to develop curriculum materials for basic and continuing professional education for nutrition teachers. It is necessary to review and update competencies regularly to reflect environmental changes in school food service programs.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.74-84
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• 2016

Literacy on food additives of elementary school teachers (ET) and nutrition teachers (NT) could be influential factor on safe dietary education for school children. Therefore, the perceptions and information needs on food additives were surveyed from 351 elementary school teachers and nutrition teachers in metropolitan area of Korea, and the basic data for the promotion of risk communication on food additives among them were obtained. Compared to ET who consider 'taste' (39.1%) as the most important factor while purchasing food, NT considered 'safety' (68.1%) first (p < 0.001). Among the food labelling items, the level of understanding on food additives was the lowest both in ET (3.53) and NT (4.17), and NT showed better levels of understanding overall on food labels. Both ET and NT regarded hazardous factors of food as environmental pollutants, foodborne pathogens, and food additives in order, and tended to select 'no additives' or 'no artificial color' products while purchasing processed food. Although NT answered that they know all food additives had been passed the evaluation of safety and effectiveness tests (100%) and have standards of use (81.9%), majority of them (87.5%) believed the consumption of food additives are harmful on human health. ET (75.2%) also regarded food additives as dangerous materials. Above results suggested the necessity of proper and enough risk communication for both ET and NT. Both ET and NT wanted to have information on the safety or hazard of food additives. Most preferred media to get the information on food additives was TV (3.80) among ET and lecture (3.65) among NT. ET and NT trusted hospital, research institution/universities or the personnels working in these institutions as the provider of information on food additives. The result that the trust levels of ET and NT on government were relative low suggested the weakness of risk communication in Korean government. Although ET and NT answered that they do not trust mass media, their behaviors were affected by them such as reading food labels in ET (39.4%) and reducing the consumption of food additives in NT (50%). They also indicated mass media's problem of sensitive approach on food additives and asked the urgent reaction of government by providing sound information through experts on food additives. Above results revealed that ET and NT have different perceptions and information needs on food additives, therefore, proper risk communication should be provided for them to serve as dietary educators for elementary school children.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.420-436
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to identify the status of task performance and working conditions for nutrition teachers in order to determine new ways to improve the current nutrition system and increase job satisfaction among teachers. From the 14th of July to the 26th of September 2014, email questionnaires were distributed to and collected from 311 nutrition teachers nationwide, including teachers at elementary, middle, and high schools. The results are as follows. First, over 90% of nutrition teachers indicated that their work was demanding. In particular, 63.5% of nutrition teachers at high schools worked more than 40 hours of overtime per month. Second, 73% of nutrition teachers provided nutrition education, but the percentage significantly decreased at upper levels of school. Nutrition teachers had difficulties teaching due to the absence of standard teaching materials and a lack of time due to excessive work. Teachers also wanted 30 hours of job training once per year during their vacation organized by the regional Department of Education. Third, around half of the nutrition teachers considered that promotion and transfer professions are necessary for systematic foodservice and education. An additional allowance was demanded by nutrition teachers at schools that serve two or three meals per day. Considering the results, alleviating the workload of nutrition teachers and more time preparing nutrition classes for student are required. Fair evaluation of job performance that considers work conditions of nutrition teachers should be considered.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.160-169
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• 2002

This study was carried to investigate the nutrition knowledge, dietary habits and nutrition attitude of 227 teachers of elementary and middle school in Masan city. The survey was conducted by a self-administered questionnaire. The results showed that the subjects had a high level of perceived nutrition knowledge (85.2%), but the accuracy of the knowledge was 76.2%, and percentage of correct answers was 65.5%. The average nutrition knowledge score was 13.1 out of possible 20 points, the average score of dietary habits was 76.2 and nutrition attitudes score was 70.8 out of 100 points. Most of the subjects are belonged to the 'good'group in terms of nutrition knowledge, dietary habits and nutrition attitudes level. Female teachers scored significantly higher on nutrition knowledge and nutrition attitudes than male teachers did (p<0.001). And elementary school teachers scored significantly higher on dietary habits than noddle school teachers (p<0.01). There was a highly significant correlations between nutrition knowledge and nutrition attitude (r =0.3, p<0.001); dietary habit and nutrition attitude (r : 0.4, p<0.001). But the correlation between nutrition knowledge and dietary habits was not significant.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.558-570
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• 2015

Purpose: The objective of this study is to investigate the work performances and the factors contributing to the work performance of nutrition teachers and school dieticians according to employment status in Daejeon and Chungcheongnamdo. Methods: A survey was conducted among 415 school dieticians from selected elementary, middle, and high schools in the area. This survey was used for analysis of the general characteristics and the status of working and foodservice environments. The frequency of occurrence was measured using the ${\chi}^2$-test while analysis of differences in work performance of 57 variables grouped according to 12 categories by mean ${\pm}$ SD was performed using student t-test. In addition, a regression analysis was performed to assess the influence of occupational (working and foodservice) environment on work performances. Results: All 14 environmental factors including general characteristics were different between nutrition teachers and school dieticians. In 12 of 57 variables there were significant differences in work performance between the two groups. When compared using average work performance, 5 domains showed significant difference in work performance between the two groups. These 5 domains were other works (T = 6.050), dietary habit guide (T = 4.789), menu (nutrition) management (T = 3.524), foodservice administration and evaluation (T = 2.757), and production and service management (T = 2.588). Overall, the work performances of nutrition teachers were comparably higher than those of school dietitians. A correlation analysis between occupational (working or foodservice) environments and work performances of the two groups showed that the work performances of nutrition teachers were influenced by the number of employees, number of students, meal frequency a day, annual salary, age, foodservice years of school, and school type. Conclusion: Meanwhile, the work performances of school dieticians were influenced by the number of students, number of employees, meal frequency a day, work hour, education level, age, school type, and service years as a dietitian.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.149-173
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of teachers during the development and performance of a nutrition education program based on collaboration between the school organization and local community, as the experiences of teachers who participate in a nutrition education program might be one of major factors to determine the success or failure of their performance. It's basic goal is give some suggestions on school nutrition education and to explore how to assist teachers to ensure their successful performance of a nutrition education program. As a result of analyzing the collected data, the experiences that the teachers had in the program planning stage were subcategorized into two groups: 'finding hope amid complaints' and 'building a learning community'. The experiences that the teachers had in the acting stage were subcategorized ino two groups as well: 'regulating, equalizing and forming a new schema' and 'building stepping stones'. The experiences that they had in the evaluation stage were also subcategorized into two groups: 'finding it rewarding and thankful to teach' and 'new challenge'. The findings of the study are expected to provide essential information on how to assist teachers to offer effective and successful nutrition education.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.19-37
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to examine early childhood teachers' knowledge and the level of their knowledge on the contents of early childhood nutrition education. The subjects were 105 early childhood teachers and they were asked to draw a concept map. The number, characteristics and density of superordinate concepts on the contents of early childhood nutrition education were analyzed. The results were as follows: Firstly, the most frequent superordinate concept was dietary habits. Secondly, food culture was the highest average of the number of subordinate concepts. In a hierarchy, food culture was also the highest score. In specificity scores, food was the highest score. And the density ranged from 0.33 to 3.60. In conclusion, the teachers' knowledge structure on early childhood nutrition education could be regarded as parallel, not well-integrated, rather than hierarchical or well-organized. A variety of nutrition education and customized teacher training should be provided for early childhood teachers to offer early childhood nutrition education.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.41 no.7
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• pp.1020-1027
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to investigate the priority of menu management by importance-performance analysis (IPA) of school foodservice menu attributes. Questionnaires were distributed to 448 school dietitians with an official letter, and a total of 292 responses were used for analysis. From the 21 menu attributes, the factors of 'nutrition', 'educational effect', 'capability consideration', 'ease of quality management', 'efficiency', and 'preference of students' were induced from exploratory factor analysis. The levels of importance (p<0.01) and performance (p<0.05) of the 'nutrition' factor were significantly higher with nutrition teachers than school dietitians, while the importance of the 'preference of students' factor showed significantly higher score with school dietitians (p<0.05). As a result of gap analysis for IPA, only the 'efficiency' factor was located in the area where performance was higher than importance, whereas no menu attribute factors were included in the 'concentrate here' area by the usual IPA. Further analysis showed that there should be more effort to improve the performance of an 'educational effect' factor for a school foodservice menu.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.17 no.4 s.38
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• pp.73-85
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to present the activating schemes of nutrition education in elementary school curriculum. We examined the nutrition education status and perception of teachers on nutrition education in elementary school. This study was carried out using a self-administered questionnaire and subjects were 263 elementary school teachers in Gyeonggi province. All data in this research was analyzed through SAS program, and the frequency and percentage on each question were calculated. Data for each group was analyzed according to sex and teaching career and the groups were treated for significance by using chi-square test. Most of teachers taught the nutrition education as a part of practical In curriculum and thought that student's interest and participation on nutrition education was high. And the teachers understood that nutrition education at school curriculum is very necessary and effective. But most teachers had no experience or teacher training Program for nutrition education. They thought it was difficult to carry out nutrition education in school because of their poor nutritive knowledge, and lack in educational materials. Moreover, it is revealed that the teachers supposed that the activation of nutrition education in school requires schools to provide nutritive guidance to students in cooperation with the homes.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.239-252
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• 2014

This study aimed to identify the influence of a nutrition teacher's servant leadership on cooks' empowerment and organizational commitment in school organization. For this purpose, this study selected 288 cooks working in elementary, middle and high schools located in Daegu city, and conducted a survey toward them. The collected data were analyzed with the frequency analysis, the reliability verification, the correlation test, and the multi-regression analysis. As the results testing the hypotheses, the following 3 hypotheses were chosen as valid ones. First hypothesis: A nutrition teacher's servant leadership will positively(+) influence on cooks' empowerment. Second hypothesis: A nutrition teacher's servant leadership will positively(+) influence on cooks' organizational commitment. Third hypothesis: A cook's servant empowerment will positively(+) influence on his/her organizational commitment. Therefore, nutrition teachers should exercise their servant leadership so that cooks can be responsible for the quality of school meals and perform their work on the basis of autonomy and creativity. In order to perform the role of a servant leader, nutrition teachers will need to continually get various educational, training programs for enhancing their servant leadership.