| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 資訊管理所 === 96 === In a study conducted during the 2004 school year, the Ministry of Education found that school children living in the southern parts of Taiwan weighted more than their northern counterparts, with those from Chai-Yi county being on average the heaviest. Parents and caregivers are either ignorant or lack knowledge about the importance of nutrition and health condition, and the role of the food pyramid: or they don’t apply it in daily life. Many spoil the school children by providing in appropriate and unhealthy food, and school children’s daily routines reveal consumption habits that are high on fatty food and sweets. Picky eaters and their lack of exercise have contribution to increased rates of obesity among the nation’s school children. The seriousness of the situation cannot be ignored because childhood obesity directly affects life-long health. Grand-parenting is common in the southern part of Taiwan where, grandparents, who are the main caregivers, hold the outdated belief that chubby children are indicators of family affluence. Imbibing as many calories as possible and having a good appetite is synonymous with good fortune and appreciation of life. Once considered appropriate, these concepts are now outmoded. In addition, the inequality in educational resource allocations between the two regions has resulted in educational disparities and insufficient knowledge of nutrition-in the south to counteract the older generation’s mindset in this regard. The above possible factors contributing to the heavier weights of southern region school children compared to those in the north.
In order to cultivate proper and balanced lifelong eating habits, one must promote and strengthen nutrition education and knowledge from childhood. This research focuses on a group of 63 fifth-grade students at a cooperative elementary school. The students complete a “dieting and nutrition knowledge measurement” survey aimed at examining the students’ perception of nutrition. Preliminary analysis of the results shows that the school children have inadequate understanding of nutrition and healthy eating habits. However, some issues have to be taken into consideration with regard to this problem. Besides the insufficient quantity of time allocated to health education in elementary school, the curriculum is also not organized and coherent. Since the classes were text and test oriented, it was difficult to determine whether the concepts taught were applied in the school children’s daily lives. Beyond the classroom, it is almost impossible for teachers to address these problems and counsel school children who have deviated from the proper nutrition education program. Consequently nutrition instruction and education has been ineffective.
The research used a quasi-experimental design to investigate the effectiveness of nutrition learning and teaching. The investigation covered two groups: an experimental group and a control group. Each used the same teaching materials delivered by the same teacher. Comparisons of the result from the two groups were used to determine teaching effectiveness with Information Technology intervention. Also, the experimental group was required to indicate its degree of satisfaction with the teaching material by completing an IRS user satisfaction evaluation. The evaluation was based on the previous research and used the Likert five-point scale and experts were consulted to review the statistics to complete the measurement of the degree of satisfaction.
Measurements were taken of each group prior to and after the experiment and the results analyzed. The averages in each group showed remarkable differences. The experimental group had a higher average than the control group. This shows that IT assisted teaching helps to promote teaching effectiveness. Also the school children who used IRS system displayed better understanding than those who only used PowerPoint software. The cross comparison showed that the group who used IRS had higher results because the teachers received instant feedback on the effectiveness of their teaching. The IRS provided instant analysis and scoring, so that teachers could immediately address any issues such as lack of understanding of food nutrition and concepts of correct eating habits. Thus, using IRS is deemed to be superior to the use of Power Point software only. Also, feedback from students in experiment group showed overall satisfaction with the IRS; the lowest rating average was 4.42 and the highest rating was 4.90 out of a possible 5 points, which shows a significantly high degree of satisfaction -- Students were very positive toward using IRS as teaching assistant in class. Nutrition education was greatly enhanced by IRS due to the following reasons: (1) The application of IRS increase students’ motivation and broaden their vision. (2) Teachers are immediately aware of their students’ level of understanding and can elaborate when the students have problem understanding and (3) Use of the IRS as an assessment tool aids teachers in evaluating the effectiveness of their teaching methods and the results of assessment can be reference to adjust teaching styles and materials.
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