Teaching Nutrition with Films
Abstract
One pretest and two posttests were administered to 427 students to determine if the "Mulligan Stew" film series was effective with grades 2-3 as well as grades 4-6 from a rural population and how well the knowledge gained was retained. And, pre- and posttests were given to 290 children to establish the grade level of teaching effectiveness of a new film on nutrition and gardening. The appropriateness of the conventional least squares analysis of variance to determine significance of differences among grades and sexes and the McNemar's test to determine significance of differences between these tests is discussed. Subsequently, a new method of evaluating the effectiveness of teaching tools is presented. The "Mulligan Stew"film series resulted in a significant increase in the nutrition knowledge of both sexes in grades 2-3 as well as grades 4-6 from a rural population, and the information learned was retained for 6 months. For maximum learning the film "How Does Your Garden Grow?" is recommended for grades 3-6. The "LE" (learning effectiveness) statistic provides a new means of comparing teaching effectiveness of teaching tools. (Home Economics Research Journal, March 1980, Vol. 8, No. 4 )