Abstract
The “Dietary Education Implementation Survey” published by the Hiroshima Prefecture Board of Education was analyzed to determine the grade level, teaching units, and contents of food education in which nutrition teachers taught integrated studies and dietary education in special activities. The results showed that topics of inquiry in integrated studies commonly addressed either “local cuisine and local products” in ‘topics related to the characteristics of the community or school such as lifestyles, traditions, and cultures of people in the local community’ or “experiencing cultivation and harvesting” in ‘topics based on the interests of school children.’ The focus for both was most often food and culture. As for dietary education in special activities, “food and nutrition” was taught frequently in ‘adaptation to daily life and learning, personal growth, and health and safety,’ often focusing on mental and physical health. In Grade 1 and Grade 7, “school lunch,” a teaching unit for ‘establishing classroom and school life routines,’ was frequently taught. This study revealed that nutrition teachers taught integrated studies and dietary education in special activities by means of cross-curricular instruction using teaching units that made the most of the characteristics of each subject and by establishing the contents of food education.
