Lesson signature in food and health education

Abstract

The Food and Health subject is a mandatory subject in primary and lower secondary schools in Norway and has many similarities to the internationally known subject Home Economics. This study aimed to examine how learning activities are structured in Food and Health education, both from the teacher's and the student's perspective. Momentary time sampling was used as the observation method, and we created "lesson signatures" of the Food and Health education based on the observational data. "Lesson signature" is a term used for an aggregate number of observed teaching sessions, and is intended to reveal specific external patterns, considering time use, organisation and teaching patterns. Data were collected from 23 observed Food and Health lessons from sixth and ninth grades in Norway. The signatures show that although the activity level of both teachers and students was high, teachers controlled and regulated the lessons. Teaching methods consisted mainly of group work. Students spent a small proportion of the lesson listening, and conversation and discussion as a collective were virtually absent.

Harnessing the untapped potential of food education in schools: Nurturing the school subject Food and Health

“…A recent study investigated lesson signature in FH, that is, observation of lesson organization, time allocation, type of teaching or learning forms, and how the different parts of the lessons were eventually connected (Aadland & Wergedahl, 2022 ). Though a high activity level was observed among pupils in the above study, time was mainly spent on group tasks related to practical kitchen work.…”

“…It thus seems that social learning is not as pronounced as one often assumes with a practical subject like FH. According to the study by Aadland and Wergedahl ( 2022 ), one typically begins with teacher‐led instruction, followed by group activities and eating. In our view, such a teaching approach needs to be adjusted to achieve the less directly cooking‐related competence aims.…”

“…If the pedagogical point is missing, then we are talking about ‘over‐cooking’, which is the time‐consuming preparation of food to be eaten as opposed to using food as a tool for learning. Importantly, pupils may potentially be more engaged, empowered, and motivated if they are given age‐appropriate space and time to express themselves more instead of being mainly teacher‐led (Aadland & Wergedahl, 2022 ; Veka et al, 2018 ).…”