Teachers’ Perceptions on the Relevance of Specific Health Education Topics in School

Abstract

This paper illustrates the results obtained through the analyzing of the teachers’ feed-back, expressed at the graduation moment of the accredited training program “Modern Approaches in Health Education”, organized in the frame of the Erasmus+ project “Let’s make it better! Raising the awareness of the triad nutritionhealth-food safety in school education”, coordinated by Valahia University Targoviste, Romania. Two Modules and 8 related topics were designed, consisting in 18 hours of courses and 36 hours for practical training, in the format of face-to-face and on-line meetings. 67 trainees - from which 98,5% women - graduated the program dedicated to primary and secondary education. Three concepts were identified as the most important to be learned by students in school - Food Composition and Food Groups, Food Hygiene and Related Risks and Food Labelling -. On the other hand, New Food Products and the Impact of the Food Industry on the Environment were considered less important, despite the efforts and care concerning the environment protection, shown in the last years at the legislative and consumers’ level throughout the world. Related to competencies, attitudes and values, the most important topics in order to be developed in school were: Awareness of the Relationship between Food and Health, Changing in the Food Consumption Manner and Personnel Hygiene. The Self-esteem related to the Physical Aspect and the Appetite Control were overwhelmingly considered less important (by more than 90% from respondents). Almost 95% from the interviewed teachers agreed that the presence of trainers (especially teachers) - through which the Education for Health is promoted - is vital. But a higher percent agreed that it is not enough to discuss about a specific topic related to the Education for Health, in order to change the students’ behavior.