School Feeding Program Research Articles

Provision of Nutrition Meals and Learner Participation in Public Primary Schools in Makueni County, Kenya

The provision of nutrition meals has been implemented in an attempt to increase food security, reduce hunger, improve health status, increase school enrollment, and enhance learner participation. The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of the provision of nutrition meals and learner participation in public primary schools in Makueni County, Kenya. This study was guided by an objective; to determine the extent to which the provision of nutrition meals influences learner participation in public primary schools in Makueni County, Kenya. Thus the study was grounded on a pragmatic paradigm that customizes both quantitative and qualitative methods of research. Descriptive survey and correlational research designs were employed. A Target population of 875 was considered which consisted of; County Education Officers, Sub County Education Officers, and Chairpersons- Board of Management, Headteachers, Teacher, and Learners in School feeding programme strategies. Yamane’s formula was applied to obtain the sample size of 275, and simple random and purposive sampling methods were employed to choose sample sizes from the population strata. Out of 66 questionnaires administered to learners in the school feeding programme in public primary schools, 58 were completed giving a return rate of 87.9%. Among 198 questionnaire given to school Headteachers, Teachers, and chairpersons-Board of management, 193 were completed, and a return rate of 97.5% was achieved. An interview guide and open ended questionnaire were employed to gather information. Null hypotheses were tested at α= 0.05 significance level and the outcomes were: There was a significant association between the provision of nutrition meals and learner participation in public primary schools in Makueni County, Kenya. Since P = 0.01<0.05 from the learners' perspective thus the study rejected the null hypothesis and concluded an association between provision of nutrition meals and learner participation in public primary schools in Makueni County, Kenya. However, there was an insignificant association between the provision of nutrition meals and learner participation in public primary schools in Makueni County, (P = 0.583 > 0.05) from head teachers, teachers and BOM chairpersons’ perspective, and hence the study failed to reject the null hypothesis thereby concluding there was no significant relationship between the provision of nutrition meals and learner participation in public primary schools in Makueni County. In view of the study outcomes and deductions, these recommendations were raised: School stakeholders, pertinent Government educational Departments, and Authorities need to improve governance and prudent management of nutrition interventions, including policy and regulations that ring-fence resources for the provision of nutrition meals to enhance learner participation in public primary schools in Makueni County, Kenya.

Primary School Feeding Programme (SFP) and Pupils’ Enrolment, Retention and Performance in Katsina State, Nigeria

This study investigated the effect of primary SFP on pupils’ enrolment, retention and performance in Katsina State using survey design approach. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 542 respondents. Data were collected using structured questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed in data analysis. Results showed that majority were females, with NCE educational qualification, had mean age and work experience of 37 and 9 years respectively. Level of enrolment was high as pupils’ enrolment, regular and punctual school attendance increased. Also, retention level was high as pupils’ absenteeism from end of session, term exams, drop-out, leaving school before closing time, irregular school attendance reduced. Academic performance level was high following improvement in class test, term and end of session exams. Over-enrollment, ineffective supervisions of cooking environment and food preparation ranked top constraints. One way ANOVA result showed significant difference among senatorial districts on enrolment, retention and academic performance. Enrolment was significantly high in NSD than in KCSD and southern senatorial district (SSD) while retention in NSD was higher than in KSD and SSD. Similarly, NSD recorded high academic performance than KCSD that had high performance rate than SSD. The test of relationship using PPMC revealed that constraint significantly correlated with pupils’ enrolment, retention and performance levels except for retention in KCSD. Pupils’ enrolment, retention and performance have improved due to SFP. While SFP should be sustained, caterers should prepare and cook the food within the schools for collaborative quality control and supervision by teachers/headmasters and supervisors from Education Ministry

Feasibility of the requirements and recommendations of the Brazilian school feeding program

Feasibility of the requirements and recommendations of the Brazilian school feeding program

Assessment of the Effect of Covid-19 Pandemic Lockdown Dietary Diversity among Urban Households in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria

Dietary diversity became a global concern in improving health conditions through the habit of food group consumption by adding health dimension to the issue of food calorie consumption. Access to nutritionally adequate and good quality diet is essential to human health, productivity and work output. However, despite the various concerns by governments all over the world on ensuring that every household can at least provide three square meals per day, food insecurity continues to be a major development problem across the globe. This study assessed the effect of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on households’ dietary diversity in Jos Metropolis, Plateau State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 265 households. Data was collected using well-structured questionnaire. The analytical techniques were; Descriptive statistics, Dietary Diversity index and Z-Statistics Test. Gender, age, household size, education, marital status, cooperative membership and access to credit were the socioeconomic characteristics described. Result indicate that 86% of the households had low food dietary diversity while 14% of the households had high food dietary diversity before and after the pandemic lockdown. Similarly, 18% of the households had low calorie consumption while 82% of the households had high dietary diversity before and after the pandemic lockdown. Cereals, legumes/grains, oils/fat, roots and tubers, sugar and honey and meats were the most common food consumed by the households daily before and after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Result further indicate that the pandemic lockdown had effect on the dietary diversity and food consumption patterns of the urban households. It can be concluded that the understanding of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on dietary diversity and food consumption patterns of households is important in developing policy measures such as social safety nets, home feeding programmes, the school feeding programme, conditional cash transfers schemes and improved marketing channels that will help mitigate against households falling into food insecurity during similar pandemic in the future.

An Investigation on the Implementation of Early Childhood Education: A Case Study of Selected Schools in Petauke District

This study investigated the implementation of early childhood education among schools in Petauke District. Despite a high enrolment rate, the children entering primary school have low levels of reading and writing skills. The study considered the benefits of ECE; the associated challenges and alternative approaches for effective implementation. Using the mixed research design, the study drew a sample of 90 respondents from 10 schools which included teachers, school administrators and parents. Data was collected by means of semi-structured questionnaires, an interview guide and focus group discussions. A combination of statistical descriptive analysis and thematic analysis was adequate for data analysis. The study found that ECE was beneficial for development of reading and writing skills; acquisition of knowledge and continuity of education to higher levels. The major challenges in ECE implementation were poor teachers’ understanding of ECE curriculum; negative attitude of parents towards ECE; poor water and sanitation; lack of ECE trained staff; poor infrastructure for ECE centres; and lack of teaching and learning materials. The alternative measures put in place included: parental sensitization and school feeding program. The overall conclusion is that the challenges and inadequacies faced by primary schools to implement ECE arise from the gaps in policy implementation and extend to institutional and domestic factors. The study contributes to the understanding that the rolling out of ECE in rural areas lags behind and that much can be done by involving the local communities and utilising available materials.

Government-Industry-Academia Alliance: A multisectoral collaboration for improved nutrition of children and well-being of mothers

Introduction: Consistent with the Sustainable Development Goal 17 highlighting partnership to achieve development, this study demonstrated the convergence among government, industry and academe in carrying out a nutrition intervention to improve the nutritional status, knowledge, attitude and behaviour of school community (school children and mothers). Methods: A school-based intervention study comprising of school lunch feeding and nutrition lessons was conducted. Quasi-experimental design was used in the intervention research. Data were analysed using Stata 12.0. Descriptive statistics were generated using the survey module (svy) of Stata. The food and nutrition intervention mix composed of the governmentpartner School Feeding Programme (SFP) and the nutrition education campaign. The government-partner SFP involved lunch feeding of 7 to 9 years old students based on the standardised Pinggang Pinoy® recipes. The government-partner nutrition education component involved teaching of the developed modules to students and their mothers. Results: The intervention resulted in improvements in nutritional status, knowledge, attitude and behaviour of students. Investing an average of Php 15.00 or USD 0.29 (as of 2017) in a school feeding programme following the government-partner food and nutrition intervention mix improved nutritional status and shifted the number of underweight children to normal nutritional status by 25.3% after 120 feeding days. This intervention was implemented through a multisectoral collaboration during the pre-implementation, implementation, and post-implementation phases of the study. Conclusion: Partnerships among stakeholders provided the context towards healthier children as demonstrated by improved nutritional status, knowledge, attitude and behaviour of participants.

School Feeding to Improve Cognitive Performance in Disadvantaged Children: A 3-Arm Parallel Controlled Trial in Northwest Pakistan.

Malnutrition is associated with reduced learning aptitude and growth during childhood. We examined the impact of providing two school lunch variants, a standard school meal (school feeding, n = 70), or the standard meal with additional micronutrients (school feeding + micronutrient powder (MNP), n = 70), in children attending two schools in northwest Pakistan. A third local government school, where no lunch was provided (no school feeding, n = 70), served as the control. The primary outcome, cognitive function, was assessed using the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM) test, alongside haemoglobin, at three-time points: T1 (baseline, before the initiation of the school lunch programme), T2 and T3 (5 and 12 months, respectively, after the introduction of the school lunch). Data were analysed using linear mixed-effects models to contrast between trial groups, the changes from T1 to T2 and T3. Adjusted for T1 and other co-variates, improvements in the RCPM scores were significantly greater in the school feeding group at T2 (b = 1.61, (95% CI = 0.71-2.52), t = 3.52, p = 0.001) and T3 (b = 1.28, (95% CI = 0.22-2.35), t = 2.38, p = 0.019) compared with no school feeding. In addition, at T2 (b = 1.63, (95% CI = -0.10-3.37), t = 1.86, p = 0.065), there were no significant differences between school feeding + MNP and no school feeding groups. However, improvements in the RCPM scores were significantly greater in the school feeding + MNP group at T3 (b = 2.35, (95% CI = 0.51-4.20), t = 2.53, p = 0.013) compared with no school feeding. The findings indicate an improvement in cognitive performance in children who received a school meal with and without MNP, over a 12-month period. Currently there is no operational school feeding programme at the national or provincial level in Pakistan. Our findings, therefore, highlight the need for school feeding programmes to improve learning opportunities for children from underprivileged communities.

Contribution of Ghana’s School Feeding Programme On Enrollment and Academic Performance of Public Basic Schools. A Case of Students in West Mamprusi Municipality

The study's goal was to determine how the Ghana School Feeding Programme affected basic school education. The study primarily examined the impact of the Ghana School Feeding Programme on the enrollment and academic performance of students in basic school. Mixed methods approach was used in the examination of some selected basic schools in Ghana's North Eastern Region, West Mamprusi Municipality that were participating in the Ghana School Feeding Programme. For the purpose of this study, teachers, head teachers and students were involved. 2,028 students formed the study population, and 200 students were chosen at random to represent the sample size. To create the sample size, twelve (12) teachers/head teachers in all were purposively chosen. The major research instrument used was questionnaire, supported by interview. The reliability of the instruments was evaluated using the tests-retest approach. The test-retest correlation coefficient demonstrated the validity and reliability of the questionnaires. The study discovered that the Ghana School Feeding Programme was a crucial and important factor determining enrollment and academic performance of students in basic education in the study schools. The study's findings indicate that the Ghana School Feeding Programme is still vital to the achievement of fundamental education and that every effort should be made to broaden its structures and purview for the good of all schools. Consequently, it is advised that the implementation committees at the Municipality should continue to monitor the quality and quantity of the daily meals provided for students in order to reduce hunger and enhance enrollment, concentration and performance in classrooms. Meals must also be nutritionally balanced and provided on time.

Family Farming Cooperatives and Associations and the Institutional Market Created by the National School Feeding Program (PNAE) in Minas Gerais, Brazil

The objective of this work is to analyze the trajectory and role assumed by the collective organizations of family agriculture, Cooperatives and Associations, in the construction and supply of food for the institutional market built from the National School Feeding Program (PNAE) in the five most important municipalities in the state of Minas Gerais/Brazil. This approach is justified by the need to remedy theoretical gaps in the insertion of cooperatives, which serve as instruments to guarantee food and nutrition security and also as a crucial actor in the construction of food markets. For this, it is necessary to investigate how these organizations were constituted, how they are organized, which actors are involved, and what their role is in the implementation of the public food purchase policy. Methodologically, it is a multiple case study, with a qualitative approach and descriptive character. For data collection, semi-structured interviews were applied in the five most populous municipalities in Minas Gerais, based on two scripts aimed at representatives of family farming organizations and members of the Public Administration who work directly with the management of the PNAE. The research results corroborate the recommendation that the Brazilian State should support the collective organization of farmers and strengthen the promotion of associativism and cooperativism in family farming, providing instruments for the development of social and economic organizations as well as expanding and strengthening government food purchase programs, since they help boost social capital in the countryside and generate income for family farmers.

School Breakfast Improves Verbal Fluency in Undernourished Jamaican Children

School feeding programs exist in many countries, but few have been properly evaluated. In this study, the short-term effects of breakfast on children's cognitive functions were examined. The subjects were 97 undernourished (weight-for-age ≤-1 SD of reference) and 100 adequately nourished (weight-for-age >-1 SD) children in four primary schools in rural Jamaica. The children were randomly assigned to a group provided with breakfast or a group given a quarter of an orange as a placebo, and then given a battery of four cognitive function tests. After a few weeks the treatments were reversed and the tests repeated. Undernourished children's performance improved significantly on a test of verbal fluency when they received breakfast, whereas that of the adequately nourished children did not change (breakfast × group interaction, P < 0.05). There were no other effects of breakfast on test scores. The findings extend those of a previous Jamaican study conducted under more controlled conditions, and support the targeting of school meals to undernourished children.

An appraisal of the implementation of the national school feeding programme and its effect on enrolment and attendance in public primary schools in Southeast, Nigeria: perception of heads of schools

IntroductionThe National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) was re-launched in Nigeria in 2016, eleven years after it was first introduced in the country, with Enugu as one of the beneficiary States. The objectives of the programme are to improve the health of school children and aid in the realization of Universal Basic Education (UBE) goals. This study explored the opinions of heads of public primary schools on the implementation and policy benefits of NHGSFP in Enugu, southeast Nigeria.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study conducted among 24 headmasters and headmistresses purposively selected from public primary schools in the Enugu metropolis. Qualitative data were collected through the use of a pretested Key Informant Interview (KII) guide, and analyzed using a thematic approach.ResultsAll the participants were aware of the NHGSFP, which involved the provision of one mid-day meal per child per school day to the pupils, and all their schools were part of the programme. Most of the participants complained about the nutritional quality and quantity of the school meals which they felt were poor. None of the schools had a kitchen within the school premises, and all the participants admitted that deworming was not regularly carried out, as part of the programme. Most of the participants believed that the objectives of the feeding programme, including, reduced hunger among learners, increased school enrolment, attendance and enhanced participatory learning, were being met.ConclusionAlthough the NHGSFP was implemented in every school in Enugu metropolis, Enugu State, Nigeria, regular deworming of pupils was not carried out, and there were concerns about certain aspects of the implementation, such as inadequate funding and poor quality of school meals. Thus, there is a need for the introduction of deworming and more allocation of funds to the programme to improve the quantity and nutritional quality of school meals.

Determinants of nutritional status among primary school students in Dilla Town; Application of an ordinal logistic regression model

BackgroundOne of the most frequent reasons for children’s poor physical and mental development is malnutrition, becoming a more significant issue in most developing nations, including Ethiopia. Prior research used multiple anthropometric measurements separately to pinpoint undernutrition concerns in children. However, the impact of each explanatory variable on a single response category was not considered in these investigations. This study used a single composite index of anthropometric parameters to identify the factors affecting elementary school students' nutritional condition. MethodsIn Dilla, Ethiopia, 494 primary school students took part in a cross-sectional institutional survey during the 2021 academic year. Principal component analysis was used to create a single composite measure of nutritional status using z-scores for the anthropometric indices of height-for-age and body mass index-for-age. The relative effectiveness of a partial proportional odds model was compared with several other ordinal regression models to identify the important variables for children’s nutritional status. Results27.94% of primary school students were undernourished (7.29% severely and 20.65% moderately). According to the fitted partial proportional odds model, the mother’s education level (secondary or higher) was positively correlated with the nutritional status of primary school students, given that in this case the students ate three or more times per day and had a high dietary diversity score (OR = 5.94; CI: 2.2–16.0). Nevertheless, there was a negative correlation between larger family size (OR = 0.56; CI: 0.32–0.97), unprotected groundwater (OR = 0.76; CI: 0.6–0.96), and severely food insecure households (OR = 0.3; CI: 0.14–0.68). ConclusionIn Dilla, Ethiopia, undernutrition among primary school students is a serious issue. It is essential to implement nutrition education and school feeding programs, improve drinking water sources, and boost the community’s economy to alleviate the problems.

Explaining the development policy implementation gap: A case of a failed food sovereignty policy in Bolivia

The food sovereignty concept has gained prominence in public policy discourses in the global South during the last decades. However, food sovereignty has contested definitions and is interpreted differently by conflicting societal interests. Consequentially, the translation of food sovereignty concepts into concrete policies and practices is often characterized by conflicts and controversies rooted in different institutional logics guiding the involved actors. In this article, we analyse how the logics of the corporatized agro-food system affected the local implementation of top-down state-induced public food sovereignty-based policies in Bolivia. We conducted a multiple-case study of public food procurement markets for school feeding programs involving three rural municipalities and small-scale producers in the Altiplano region. The data consists of 53 interviews conducted during 2011–2015. We found that corporate food regime logics influence the local policy implementation process in three ways. First, by framing the chosen policy design as neoliberal individualistic and transaction-based market-orientated. Second, by envisioning for the Aymara subsistence peasants a socially and culturally undesirable identity and class transformation; and thirdly, indirectly through the dependency of the school feed program on adjacent field-level institutions shaped by the corporate food regime logics. We conclude that the corporate food regime logics shaped the notion of what was considered legitimate practices and processes required for smallholders to access the public food procurement market, whereas their own conceptions aligned with food sovereignty principles were disregarded.

Effect of School-Based Feeding Program Implementation of Elementary Schools on Learners’ Academic Performance

A school feeding program is a thoroughly thought-out strategy for feeding students to support academic achievement and extracurricular activities. This study aimed to determine the level of school-based feeding program management and learners performance at Esperanza District III. The researcher employed a descriptive correlational research design to attain its objectives. A total one hundred (100) teachers and 100 learner beneficiaries was included as respondents. It utilized the descriptive and inferential statistics like mean, frequency and percentage and Pearson r moment correlation. The findings revealed that behaviour of beneficiaries was described as always observed. School feeding program was described as frequently observed. The strategy implementation was always observed in every school and food safety was implemented to keep the learners safe. Majority of the learners obtained an outstanding performance ranging from grades of 90-100. The academic performance of SBFP beneficiaries is dependent to the level of the school-based feeding program management. The effective strategy creates good communication and information dissemination to parents as well as interactive way to establish linkages in gaining support of the program. The food safety is always observed by the school implementer of the feeding program. The implementation of feeding program is effective especially to the poor and deserving learners. When feeding program is manage properly it give san impact to the learners by giving staple and enough food to eat.

Characterization and analysis of the supply network of the Brazilian national school feeding programme

IMPACT The Brazilian national school feeding programme (PNAE) is a tested model providing food security. The federal government designed it, but municipal and state governments deliver it. This article provides information on PNAE suppliers. It shows that it is possible to promote food security together with the local economy. However, a concern is that local managers sometimes find it easier to procure from just one or a few large, specialized companies. The authors explain how this problem can be dealt with.

Integrating Family Farming into School Feeding: A Systematic Review of Challenges and Potential Solutions

Family farming is strengthening its strategic role in school nutrition, but coordinating between school feeding programs and the agricultural sector has proven to be challenging. The goal of this review was to identify the problems that school feeding programs face in acquiring food from family farms. We selected studies from Web of Science, Medline/PubMed, and Scopus and evaluated their methodological quality. Out of 338 studies identified, 37 were considered relevant. We used PRISMA to guide the review process, and we chose not to limit the year or design of the study because it was important to include the largest amount of existing evidence on the topic. We summarized the main conclusions in six categories: local food production, marketing, and logistics channels, legislation, financial costs, communication and coordination, and quality of school menus. In general, the most critical problems emerge from the most fragile point, which is family farming, particularly in the production and support of food, and are influenced by the network of actors, markets, and governments involved. The main problems stem from the lack of investment in family farming and inefficient logistics, which can negatively impact the quality of school meals. Viable solutions include strategies that promote investment in agricultural policies and the organization of family farmers.

A Holistic Review of Home-Grown School Feeding Programme for Primary School Pupils’ in Africa

School feeding programme is an important aspect of child’s cognitive development. Home-grown school feeding is an intervention programme designed for school aged children in order to eradicate hunger, increase enrolment, improve pupils’ nutritional value and pupils’ cognitive development whereas these objectives have not be achieved. Therefore, aim of the study is to holistically review the challenges faced in the implementation of home-grown school feeding programme among primary school pupils in Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Mali) and ways of solving these challenges. The paper also reviewed the concept of home-grown school feeding and its challenges. A qualitative research design of systematic search strategy type was used to gathered information in different databases and journals. In the course of the study, the researchers discovered that the programme is faced with the issues of corruption due non- remittance of regular fund to the school vendors and underfunding of the programmes. Other penitent issues include: low and inadequate storage facilities, political interferences, inadequate nutritional meals and low level of implementation. The researchers recommended that caterers should be trained by dieticians on the type of food to prepare for pupils’ and also government should set up a monitoring team to supervise the home-grown school feeding programme for proper implementation in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Mali and other Sub-Sahara Africa Countries.

Food choice behavior of adolescents under parent-child interaction in the context of US school lunch programs

A relatively new trend in school feeding programs around the world is procuring food from local producers. However, little is known about student preferences for locally sourced food in school meals and how the interaction between parent and student preferences for locally sourced items influence joint school lunch decisions. We conducted a nationwide survey in the U.S. that embeds a school lunch discrete choice experiment. Results indicate that students and parents would prefer that locally produced items be added to school lunch menus. However, while parent and student preferences align on some aspects of locally sourced meal elements, their preferences are not identical, with parents displaying a higher willingness to pay for locally sourced vegetables and students displaying a higher willingness to pay for locally sourced fruit. Joint choices are influenced by both parties. Parents dominate the joint outcomes when the household income is lower, when students eat school lunch more frequently and in dyads featuring a female parent and female student compared to male parent-male student dyads. Our findings emphasize why analyzing joint parent-student food choice behavior, rather than individual choices, is vital to understand participation in school feeding programs and hold implications for efforts to promote locally sourced food elements in school meals and the role of parent engagement in that process.

English

The study was aimed at investigating practice relating to use of cooking salt in school meal preparation and quality control practices among Food Vendors (FVs) engaged in National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) in public primary schools located in Oyo and Ogun States, Southwest Nigeria. An exploratory qualitative study was conducted among 40 selected FVs engaged in NHGSFP in the two States. Data were collected using a pretested Key Informant Interview guide. Interviews were subjected to thematic content analysis. Findings reveal that several FVs usually used packaged cooking salt, while some preferred unpackaged cooking salt sold in open plastic containers. The use of salt combined with other forms of food seasonings including bouillon cubes was a common practice among FVs. Practices they often employed to determine quantity of salt included &lsquo;gradual adding of salt to taste&rsquo;, use of bare-hands to add salt and &lsquo;use of visual measure to gauge the added salt&rsquo;. Some FVs usually salvaged meals containing excessive salt, especially rice by adding water and sieving it afterwards. An appropriate nutrition education intervention, which encourages use of packaged dietary salt by FVs as well as graduated measuring spoon to quantify the amount of salt added to school meals is suggested. &nbsp; Key words: Food vendors; school meals; national home-grown school feeding programme; use of cooking salt control, use of condiments; Southwest Nigeria.&nbsp

Acceptability of School Menus: A Systematic Review of Assessment Methods.

The school meal promotes healthy eating habits through nutritionally adequate preparations. Consequently, it prevents obesity and malnutrition, favoring learning. This systematic review aimed at investigating the methods for evaluating the acceptance of school menus offered by school feeding programs (SFPs) around the world. Specific search strategies were conducted on PubMed, Lilacs, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, Google Scholar, and ProQuest Global. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using the Meta-Analysis Statistical Assessment and Review Instrument. A total of 89 studies were included. The countries with the highest number of studies were Brazil (n = 42), South Korea (n = 13), and the United States (n = 12). The most used methods (69.66%) were numerical scales, with a higher prevalence for the 5-point scale (50.56%). Other methods included questionnaires and/or interviews with objective and/or subjective questions (44.94%); and mathematical formulas and/or visual estimates evaluating the consumption of food and leftovers (40.45%). The prevalent use of the 5-point hedonic scale may be due to its low cost, simplicity, ease of elaboration, application speed, and student understanding. Mathematical formulas and/or visual estimation were used by about 40% of the studies, but it is difficult to compare studies.