Teachers’ Perceptions of Nutrition-Integrated Curriculum and its Impact on Development and Sustainability

Addressing childhood obesity and academic achievement is critical to fostering a healthier generation, but some children may not have support at home that enables them to eat the most nutritious foods. Thus, an integrated standards-based approach to nutrition education in the school setting may provide a sustainable way for children to learn healthy lifelong eating habits while simultaneously making academic gains. However, barriers such as feasibility and teachers’ self-efficacy surrounding a nutrition-integrated curriculum may play a pivotal role in the success of such a program. Therefore, this study assessed teachers’ perceptions of a nutrition-integrated curriculum through a survey that was administered prior to development of teacher training and curriculum for a nutrition-integrated pilot curriculum entitled Fuel to Learn. While results of the survey provided data to assist the researchers in development of training and the Fuel to Learn curriculum, Chi-Square statistics revealed that there was not a significant relationship between the categorical variables (X2= .90, p > .05). However, the concerns voiced by the teachers in the survey with respect to nutrition integration were all addressed as part of the training and design of Fuel to Learn. Therefore, we posit that the Fuel to Learn curriculum has the potential for success and sustainability in terms of its’ use in the elementary classroom.

Keywords: nutrition education, perceptions of integrated curriculum, childhood obesity, elementary teachers.