TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAM – DEVELOPING MODEL LECTURES INTEGRATING FOOD AND NUTRITION EDUCATION CONTENT FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN CAU GIAY DISTRICT

TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAM – DEVELOPING MODEL LECTURES INTEGRATING FOOD AND NUTRITION EDUCATION CONTENT FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN CAU GIAY DISTRICT

On August 13, 2024, at Nam Trung Yen Secondary School, the Good Food At School Project implemented by the C&E Center under the direction and coordination of the Department of Education and Training of Cau Giay District successfully organized the training course “Developing model lectures integrating food and nutrition education content for secondary school students in Cau Giay District”.
The program had the participation of Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Thi Nhung – Head of the Department of School and Professional Nutrition, National Institute of Nutrition; Mr. Nguyen The Hung – Experiential Education Expert; Ms. Nguyen Thi Tao – Education and Sustainable Development Expert and representatives of the Board of Directors, staff, teachers, medical staff of Nam Trung Yen Secondary School, Yen Hoa Secondary School, and teachers and staff of 15 secondary schools in Cau Giay District.

At the training session, Experiential Education Expert – Mr. Nguyen The Hung gave an overview of the nutrition document set consisting of 2 parts, teacher documents and documents for students, the connection between lessons, stories, and the arrangement of the content of the 5 nutrition document books. In addition, he also introduced a set of teaching support tools, including suggestions and notes on teaching methods about food and nutrition, teaching plans and content allocation, organizing extracurricular programs, etc. Thereby, teachers participated in group discussions of 3 people and proposed effective teaching methods, including new methods such as dramatization, etc.
According to Ms. Bui Thi Nhung, as the nutrition document consists of basic knowledge, teachers can change and create more, but need to grasp the core to convey to students, for example, the BMI index – helping students calculate and assess their own nutritional status. At the same time, she shared experiences in the process of teaching secondary school students about food and nutrition as well as suggestions for integrating food and nutrition education content such as thematic teaching slides developed by the Institute of Nutrition, or organizing 2 groups of students to compete in naming foods that are harmful to health.
Representative of C&E Center – Ms. Bui Thi Thanh Thuy shared: “We need to find ways to put students at the center, create positive initiative for all students, that is, students are the main learners, teachers and instructors are the ones to support and summarize”.
Teachers from Cau Giay Secondary School, Ly Thai To Secondary School and Trung Hoa Secondary School shared with the members 3 sample lectures from the content of 3 books “Let’s cook together”, “Secrets behind food” and “Become a food hero”.
The teacher from Cau Giay Secondary School brought the lecture “Food hygiene and safety” of book 2 “Let’s cook together”, a very interesting lecture with a warm-up game of catching the word, vivid videos about food hygiene and safety and actual figures in Vietnam.
The next lecture came from Ly Thai To Secondary School, with the topic “Experience learning about organic agriculture” of book 4 “Secrets behind food”, through interesting activities such as space games, learning through practical experiences on organic farms, … students will definitely have memorable memories along with useful knowledge.

Finally, teachers of Trung Hoa Secondary School introduced to the members the lecture “The future with food” – Book 5 “Becoming a food hero”. Creative tools such as video reports, games “Who is fast, who is right”, group work activities and videos about a working day of industries related to agriculture and food, … were used by the teacher to convey knowledge to students most effectively.

Through the training session, the participating members summarized the results of the trial teaching process, listened to the sharing of experts and teachers from 15 schools, participated in building opinions and giving comments for the lecture.
The suggestions from staff and teachers have been recorded by the “Good Food At School” program and have helped to improve the nutrition materials for secondary school teachers and students as well as upcoming activities integrating food and nutrition education content.