Requirements and Self-evaluation of Competencies Necessary to be Effective Nutrition Teachers Perceived by School Food Service Dieticians

The purposes of the study were to identify a comprehensive competency list related to the jobs of nutrition teachers and to compare the competency needs for nutrition teachers and dieticians' competency levels. Job functional areas and a competency list for nutrition teachers were developed based on a review of literature and revised through expert panel reviews. A total of 53 competency statements associated with 11 job functional areas were specified. Questionnaires were distributed to 457 dieticians engaged in school food service and 148 responses were returned (response rate: 32.4%). Excluding incomplete responses, 142 questionnaires were used for data analysis. Approximately half of the respondents were enrolled in an 1-year nutrition teacher certificate program, 25% in a graduate school of nutrition education, and 19% had completed an 1-year nutrition teacher certificate program. The dieticians highly rated requirements of the competencies related to sanitation and employee safety, nutrition counseling, nutrition education, and teaching practices; in contrary, their competency levels for nutrition education, nutrition counseling, and teaching practices were low. Respondents' competency levels were significantly lower than the required competency levels of effective nutrition teachers in all functional areas. A quadratic analysis based on the requirement and self-evaluation of the competencies revealed that priorities of education programs targeting school nutrition teachers or students preparing to be nutrition teachers should be placed on improving competencies related to nutrition education, nutrition counseling, teaching practices, sanitation and employee safety, menu management, and human resource management. These results can be used to develop curriculum materials for basic and continuing professional education for nutrition teachers. It is necessary to review and update competencies regularly to reflect environmental changes in school food service programs.