Working with Parents

Family involvement is an important element in effective nutrition education for elementary school students. ²⁰ All surveyed teachers were asked the extent to which they or their schools used any of following eight strategies to involve parents in the nutrition education of their children:

• Including parents in homework assignments;



• Sending home educational materials to help parents learn about nutrition or teach their children about nutrition;



• Inviting parents to attend nutrition classes;



• Inviting parents to attend special events, such as School Lunch Week or tasting parties;



• Inviting parents in nutrition-related careers to speak to the class;



• Asking parents to give in-class demonstrations;



• Asking parents to send healthful snacks to school; and



• Offering nutrition workshops or screening services for parents.

With the exception of asking parents to send healthful snacks (with 37 percent "great extent" and 25 percent "moderate extent"), a majority of teachers reported that they or their schools used these strategies to a small extent or not at all (Table 13).

Examining the figures for teachers who reported they or their schools never used the strategies versus those who did at least to a small extent provides more information about family involvement efforts in nutrition education (Table 14).

• By geographic region, teachers from the Southeast were most likely to invite parents to special events (84 percent) compared to 45 to 52 percent in the other regions.



• By level of support for nutrition education from the school, teachers with high levels of support were most likely to report that they or their schools used the following parent involvement strategies than were teaches with low levels of support; including parents in homework assignments (85 versus 66 percent), sending home educational materials (85 versus 66 percent), inviting parents to special events (70 versus 46 percent), inviting parents in nutrition careers to speak to their class (54 versus 31 percent), and asking parents to give in-class demonstrations (47 versus 28 percent).



• By level of most formal training, teachers with college coursework in nutrition education were more likely to report that they or their schools used the following parent involvement strategies than teachers with no training: including parents in homework assignments (82 versus 48 percent), sending home educational materials (78 versus 60 percent), inviting parents to special events (65 versus 41 percent), inviting parents in nutrition careers to speak to their class (52 versus 24 percent), and asking parents to give in-class demonstrations (46 versus 25 percent).

So, while family involvement strategies for nutrition education were less often used among all teachers than some might argue is optimal, ²¹ teachers with higher levels of support from their schools, and teachers with college training in nutrition education were making efforts to involve families more often than teachers with lower levels of support and those with no training, respectively.

Instructional Material for Nutrition Education

The USDA is interested in promoting the development and adoption of high-quality instructional materials for nutrition education. To help determine the current need for materials, teachers who taught nutrition were asked about the quality and quantity of materials they use now, the sources of materials, the types of additional materials that would be most helpful to them in their nutrition education efforts, and their preferred methods for receiving materials. For the purposes of this survey, high quality materials were defined as being up to date, age appropriate, and appealing to students. In addition, teachers were asked whether they had enough materials for all of their students.

When teachers who taught nutrition were asked whether the instructional materials they used were high in quality, about one in four said they were up to date to a great extent (24 percent), 41 percent said they were age appropriate to a great extent, and 23 percent said they were appealing to students to a great extent (Table 15). About one in five reported having enough materials for all their students to a great extent (21 percent), and about one in five (19 percent) reported that they did not have enough materials for all students.

Teachers with high levels of support for nutrition education from their school were more likely to report high-quality materials than were teachers at low support schools (Figure 5). For example, 28 percent of teachers in high-support schools reported their materials are up to date, versus 19 percent of those in low-support schools. Teachers in high-support schools were also more likely to report having enough materials for all their students, that students find materials appealing, and that materials are age appropriate to a great extent. Teachers with inservice training in nutrition education were more likely than teachers with no training to report their materials were up to date and age appropriate to a great extent (Figure 6). For example, 44 percent of teachers with inservice training reported their materials were age appropriate to a great extent, versus 21 percent of teachers with no training.

A high proportion of elementary school teachers who taught nutrition used materials for nutrition education that they found or developed on their own (Table 16). Thirty-three percent did this to a moderate extent and 35 percent did it to a great extent. Teachers in the lower elementary grades three through five (kindergarten through second) did this more often to a great extent (40 percent) than did teachers in grades three through five (29 percent). Also, teachers with lower levels of support (40 percent) used materials they found on their own to a great extent more often than those with higher levels (31 percent).

All surveyed teachers were asked the extent to which eight types of instructional materials would be useful to them in their nutrition education efforts (in addition to materials they already used) (Table 17). They rated materials as useful to a great extent to the following degrees:
1. Audio and visual aids such as films, videotapes, or posters (61 percent);
2. Manipulatives and laboratory materials (58 percent);
3. Teacher materials such as curriculum guides or trade books (47 percent);
4. Computer software (43 percent);
5. Supplementary student materials (e.g., worksheets) (31 percent);
6. Publications such as newsletters, magazines, or pamphlets (30 percent);
7. Textbooks (22 percent); and
8. Student assessment materials (22 percent).

More teachers at the kindergarten through second-grade level reported that textbooks for nutrition education would not be useful to them at all than did teachers of grades three to five (36 versus 20 percent), and teachers of grades three to five were more likely than kindergarten through second-grade teachers to report that supplemental materials (37 versus 27 percent), publications such as newsletters (37 versus 25 percent), and assessments (27 versus 18 percent) would be useful to them to a great extent.

All surveyed teachers were also asked about their preferred method for having nutrition education materials distributed to them. The majority (67 percent) said they prefer receiving materials for nutrition education directly, such as through the mail (Figure 7). A few (13 percent) would rather receive materials through training workshops; and fewer still preferred using specific intermediaries, such as the school meals program (8 percent), the school district (6 percent), or their school's administration (5 percent). Altogether, about 19 percent preferred use of any intermediaries.

To get an idea of the familiarity of elementary school teachers with Team Nutrition, the USDA program to improve nutrition education in the classroom, a separate question was asked of all surveyed teachers. About one in ten (9 percent) reported familiarity with the program (not shown in a table).

Topics for In-service Training in Nutrition Education

All surveyed teachers were asked whether they would like to receive inservice training on four nutrition topics. In each of the four areas, a majority of elementary teachers said they would like to receive inservice training (Figure 8). Specifically, 79 percent would like such training for coordinating nutrition education across subjects and across grades; 71 percent, for active learning strategies; 68 percent, for involving parents in nutrition education; and 55 percent, for collaborating with the school meals program.

Comparison Between School and Teacher Results

There are several topics where the results from the current survey of teachers are similar to the results obtained from schools in the previous 1995 FRSS nutrition education survey, ²² in particular when comparing results from the Southeast region to other geographic regions.

The FRSS school survey reported higher nutrition education activity among meals programs in the Southeast than in other geographic regions. Meals programs in Southeast elementary schools were more likely to have bulletin boards with nutrition information and to sponsor School Lunch Week, as well as to provide nutrition education in the classroom and to solicit student and parent input than meals programs in other geographic regions. The teacher survey found that teachers in the Southeast were more likely to report a greater availability of high-quality in-service training and a coordinated school nutrition policy. They were also least likely to report barriers to cooperation with the meals program staff compared to teachers from other regions.

Summary

The results of this survey show that nutrition education is going on in elementary school classrooms, and that many of the instructional materials and techniques used are those that research indicates may be effective. However, the classroom time currently devoted to this topic may not be sufficient to change eating behaviors in students. Research cited earlier in this report suggests that nutrition instruction might be improved through inservice training focusing on the following:

• Use of active learning strategies,



• Ways to integrate nutrition lessons into other subjects, and



• Ways to involve families in nutrition education. Teachers reported that they were interested in receiving in-service training about these topics. Those who received high support or had some types of training were more likely to do some of these things than teachers with low support or with no training, respectively. In addition, teachers with in-service training were more likely to use instructional materials that were up to date and age appropriate than teachers with no training.

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²⁰Lytle, "Nutrition Education for School-Aged Children," 307.

²¹Lytle, "Nutrition Education for School-aged Children," 307.

²²U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Nutrition Education in U.S. Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, NCES 96-852, by Carin Celebuski and Elizabeth Farris, Judi Carpenter, project officer, 1996.

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