Undergraduate College Students' Perceptions of Effective Nutrition Education Interventions

Abstract

To examine college students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of nutrition education interventions conducted as experiential learning experience for undergraduate course at New Jersey state university. Over the past 3 years, 84 undergraduate nutrition and dietetics students have engaged in a nutrition education intervention as a required project in Nutrition Education Techniques course. The nutrition education intervention project is a form of experiential learning that entails conducting a comprehensive needs assessment of a specific target audience. This process if followed by the design and implementation of a lesson plan incorporating Bloom’s taxonomy of learning objectives reflecting cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains. A single nutrition education intervention (1-hour duration) was designed and implemented by students targeting diverse age groups ranging from pre-school children to older adults at educational and community-based settings. Intervention lesson plans reflected behaviorally-based approaches and information dissemination of nutrition-related concepts. Upon completion of the intervention, students responded to an evaluation survey on demographic profile of target audience, teaching techniques employed, and factors affecting the effectiveness of achieving intervention goals and objectives. Effective strategies in addressing preschoolers and children included the use of engaging, interactive, multi-sensory activities. Themes of using dynamic visual aids and computer-generated learning modalities emerged for teenagers. Adults benefited from relevant, hands-on demonstrations, educational materials, and interactive discussions to address life stage issues. This project serves as a medium for students to critically analyze the efficacy of nutrition education interventions addressing multiple age groups. Engaging and age-appropriate learning tools are perceived as fostering successful interventions.