Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher's perceptions about the nutrition education of elementary schools. A total of 226 elementary school teachers within Changwon and Milyang city participated in this study. The results of this study were as follows. 90.8% of the teachers responded that nutrition education is necessaty in the elementary schools, and positive responses in the Milyang urban area were higher than that of the Changwon rural area(p<0.001). The main reason for the necessity of nutrition education was for proper growth and good table manners and the Milyang urban city was significantly higher than three other classes in 'for proper growth'(p<0.05). The starting period for nutrition education was supported by 72.1% of the teachers as beging when the children are in kindergarten, proving that this early nutrition education is supported. Especially in the Changwon urban support was higher than in the three other classes(p<0.01). The perceptions about a suitable person to teach nutrition indicated parents(39.6%), dietitions(35.5%), class teachers(24.9%), and the beliefs about nutrition specialists or dietitions was very low. 53.6% of the teachers responded that they would not teach nutrition education themselves and the main reason for this was that believed the teacher's work would be too hard(32.0%), lack of nutrition knowledge(29.4%), and that such courses should be taught courses by specialists(29.4%). However, 51.6% of the teachers disagreed with having a separate course for nutrition education. Proper eating habits(62.7%) and growth and nutrition(28.6%) were the main categories within nutrition education. The teacher recognized that elementary students' nutrition problem is to eat too much processed and instant foods(39.1%), deviated foods(36.9%), and lack of table manners(19.4%). The most effect method was to link the subject matter with the parents(38.7%), use of audio visuals and education materials(28.3%), and need of nutrition education teachers(10.1%) was low.

• Keywords: nutrition education; elementary school; perceptions of teachers