Children’s cookbooks – Learning by using recipes, cooking experiments and taste competence

Abstract

Introduction:My Cookery is a children’s cookery book that aims to enhance children’s joy of cooking and develop their cooking skills. It has been distributed to more than 450,000 children in Denmark. The development of the book was infomed by research into food education approaches that are generally known to enhance student outcomes (experiential learning, co-determination and activating taste competences). This article reports on a study which aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the different approaches students use to engage with the cookery book.Method:A survey was conducted among students ( N = 1,609) with experience of using My Cookery. Outcomes were measured in terms of self-assessed learning. Different approaches to use were measured in terms of (1) how recipes were used, (2) whether taste competences were used actively, (3) students’ level of co-determination and (4) school, home and website use, respectively. Through multiple stepwise regression, correlations between student outcome and different methods of usage were analysed.Conclusion:The results indicate that the greatest effect was achieved when students used their taste competences actively. The second-largest effect was linked to students’ home usage. To carry out effective home economics teaching, it may be essential to facilitate processes that reach into the home and ensure taste competences are activated during cooking.