Nutrition education for grades 7–12: The perspective of Pennsylvania teachers and administrators

Abstract

A statewide mail survey of Pennsylvania junior and senior high school administrators and teachers, of all subject matter areas, was conducted to ascertain their perspective on nutrition education for students in grades 7–12. Of the 2,607 individuals who were sent a questionnaire, 1,366 responded; 96% were teachers and 4% were administrators. Only 22% of the respondents had taken a college course that covered nutrition; and these were concentrated among teachers of home economics, health/physical education, and life sciences. These 3 subject matter areas were also the ones in which teachers expressed the greatest interest in teaching nutrition. However, there was strong agreement among all respondents that nutrition should be taught in grades 7–12. Both teachers and administrators favored integrating nutrition education into existing courses over teaching it as a separate course. Courses deemed most appropriate for this were health and home economics and, to a lesser extent, biology and physical education. Teaching nutrition as a “mini-course” at several points during grades 7–12 also received considerable support. Based on these results, a comprehensive approach to nutrition education for grades 7–12 is described.