Development of School Food Education: Teachers’ Teaching Interventions in Urban Middle Schools of Northern Taiwan

Abstract

This research explores current teaching interventions in the development of school food education in urban schools of northern Taiwan, focusing on the relationship between teachers’ teaching attitudes, teaching knowledge, and teaching commitments. As the urban schools of northern Taiwan (Taipei, New Taipei City, and Taoyuan City) are all classified as metropolitan areas, schools in these areas place a greater emphasis on students’ dietary habits. This study therefore selected urban middle schools of these three connected municipalities as the research area. It adopted stratified random methods for sampling and designed questionnaires to collect data. A total of 748 urban middle school teachers were selected as research participants. A total of 652 valid questionnaires were recovered, which generated an effective recovery rate of 87.17% among 59 urban middle schools. The results for teaching attitudes, environmental awareness, and food awareness are important. For teaching knowledge, teachers’ professional knowledge, class management knowledge, and academic research knowledge are significant. They will facilitate the development of school food education. Despite the limitations, the study can provide teachers with multiple technologies to fulfill food education through teaching interventions.