Abstract:

Background:
The Vestland-class in Food and Health is part of the Master degree in teacher education at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (WNUAS). The Vestland-class in Food and Health consists of two courses, were the student teachers are participating in both online lectures and physical gatherings on campus. Each course represent 15 credits, wich gives a total of 30 credits by completing both courses. The first course is “Introduction to Food and Health”, which means that the student teachers will acquire knowledge about health-promoting diets, sustainable development, and the importance of food and meals as a social learning arena. The second course is “Food and Health as a Subject in School Teaching”, which involves planning, implementing, and evaluating education related to the goals of the curriculum. The student teachers will further acquire and apply skills in various cooking techniques and teaching methods (HVL, 2023).

This paper will present a specific example on how to implement the subject Food and Health in a Vestland-class format, and the research question is as follows: How does one implement a practical subject as a partially web-based course?

Implementing the subject Food and Health in a Vestland-class format:
Food and Health is a theoretical and practical subject (Kunnskapsdepartementet, 2019). We have designed the Vestland-class with both digital lectures and physical gatherings. Four weeks during the semester, student teachers have physical gatherings on campus. Each gathering lasts for two days. The main focus of the gatherings is to inspire student teachers to try new ingredients, cooking techniques and methods, as well as how they can teach these practical skills to elementary school students. An example of one day in a gathering could be structured as follows. The theme could be vegetables, fruits and berries. We focus on how to prepare the ingredients in a hygienic way as well as how to cook them in various dishes. Every gathering we teach the student teachers general theoretic background about the different food groups, as well as different cooking techniques and didactic thinking, which are always discussed in relation to the different dishes. The remaining weeks of the semester students have weekly digital lectures with student-active tasks related to the topic at hand. The topic of a digital lecture could for example be dietary advice & dietary challenges. Students typically receive a lecture of approximately 30 minutes. The duration of the lectures is based on research that shows that short lectures can increase attendance and help students maintain their attention in digital lectures (Özkara, 2021). After the lecture, students are divided in break-out rooms to discuss tasks and issues related to the lectures theme. Finally, we have a collective review of the tasks and the lecture's topic.

References:
[1] HVL. (2023). MGUMH201A Mat og helse 1, emne 2: Mat og helse som undervisningsfag. https://www.hvl.no/studier/studieprogram/emne/2022/mgumh201a
[2] Kunnskapsdepartementet. (2019). Læreplan i mat og helse (MHE01-02). Fastsatt som forskrift. Læreplanverket for Kunnskapsløftet 2020.
[3] Özkara, B.O. (2021). Determining the Optimal Duration of a Single Lecture in Distance Education Using Facial Analysis of Instructors. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology 20(2), 35-43. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1304918

Keywords:

Teacher education, Food and Health, practical subject, partially web-based course, student teachers.