A Survey of Teachers' Recognition on Nutrition Knowledge and Nutrition Education at Day-care Centers

Park, Kum Mi

Abstract

This study was aimed at knowing the recognition of teachers' nutrition knowledge and nutrition education at day-care centers in Seong-nam. Teachers were all female, most of whom were in the 20, and their careers were less than 3 years. And 76.2% of the teachers graduated from high school and junior college. The score of the nutrition knowledge was average 14.3 +/- 2.2 (out of 20). It shows that they are lack of general information of nutrition. As the teachers had higher education, they scored higher nutrition knowledge levels (p<0.01). It also says that there was meaningful interrelationship between the nutrition knowledge and the number of children they had (p<0.05). 93% of the teachers said that nutrition education should be given when children are three years old, at least and most of the teachers thought that nutrition education is necessary and should be taught in a separate course. 50.4% of the teachers thought that nutrition education for early childhood should be taught by a nutritionist, but 35.2% of them thought that the teachers themselves should be in charge of it. About 60% of the teachers thought that 'Cooking Activity for Early Childhood' course should be established and it is desirable that the nutrition education should be in the area of cooking activity for childhood at daycare centers. The teachers thought that dietary habit is the most important subject in nutrition education and they got more information from the internet rather than in the class related to nutrition.