Is the environment in kindergarten associated with the vegetables served and eaten? The BRA Study

This is an author accepted manuscript.Aim: The aim of the present study was to explore the associations between the economic, political, sociocultural and physical environments in kindergartens, along with the frequency and variety of vegetables served, and the amount of vegetables eaten. Method: The BRA Study collected data through two paper-based questionnaires answered by the kindergarten leader and pedagogical leader of each selected kindergarten, and a five-day vegetable diary from kindergartens (n = 73) in Vestfold and Buskerud Counties, Norway. The questionnaires assessed environmental factors, and the frequency and variety of vegetables served. The non-parametric Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to explore the associations between factors in the kindergarten environments and vegetables served and eaten. Results: Kindergartens that included expenditures for food and beverages in the parental fees served a larger variety of vegetables (p = 0.046). A higher frequency of served vegetables (p = 0.014) and a larger amount (p = 0.027) of vegetables eaten were found in kindergartens where parents paid a monthly fee of 251 NOK or more. Similarly, the amount of vegetables eaten was higher (p = 0.017) in kindergartens where the employees paid a monthly fee to eat at work. Furthermore, a larger amount (p = 0.046) of vegetables was eaten in kindergartens that had written guidelines for food and beverages that were offered. Conclusions: This study indicates that the economic environment in a kindergarten seems to be positively associated with the vegetables served and eaten there. This is of high relevance for public health policy as vegetable consumption is an important factor in reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases.acceptedVersio

The Effect of Schooling on Basic Cognition in Selected Nordic Countries

The present study investigated schooling effects on cognition. Cognitive data were collected as part of a research project (ProMeal) that investigated school meals and measured the intake of school lunch in relation to children’s health, cognitive function, and classroom learning in four Nordic countries, among children between 10–11 years of age. It was found that Finnish pupils attending 4th grade were not, on any measure, outperformed by Norwegian and Icelandic pupils attending 5th and Swedish pupils attending 4th grade on a task measuring working memory capacity, processing speed, inhibition, and in a subsample on response- and attention control. Moreover, boys were found to perform superior to girls on tasks measuring processing speed. However, girls were found to perform better on tasks related to attention and self-control. The results are discussed in relation to the reciprocal association between cognition and schooling and whether these results reflect quality differences between schools in the four Nordic countries; most notably in comparison to Finland.</p

Evaluating the implementation of the Norwegian guidelines for healthy school meals. A case study involving three secondary schools

Introduction: Healthy eating is an important factor in children’s health and academic performance. Children and adolescents eat at least one daily meal at school and school meals represent a considerable part of their overall diet. Therefore, governments are encouraged to adopt policies that support healthy diets at school and that limit the availability of products high in salt, sugar, and fats. As part of the national policy on diet and nutrition, the Norwegian Directorate for Health and Social Affairs published guidelines in 2003 for healthy school meals in primary and secondary schools. The overall aim of this study was to evaluate the implementation of the Norwegian guidelines for healthy school meals in three secondary schools, with a specific focus on how individual and organizational factors interacted with and influenced this implementation. Methods: This study was based on a multiple-case design with an exploratory approach. Data were collected at three secondary schools in Norway that had participated in the intervention project Physical activity and healthy school meals. A comprehensive approach to the sources of data was chosen, and the sources consisted of baseline questionnaires, observations, interviews, and documents. Individual interviews were conducted with school principals and project leaders, and focus group interviews were conducted separately with teachers and students. The data were analysed using a case-oriented strategy (Miles & Huberman, 1994) and a variable-oriented strategy (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Results: Paper 1 describes the degree of implementation achieved in terms of adherence, exposure, quality of delivery, and weekly revenue. The factor that was most important for the implementation of the guidelines was the construction of an innovation-specific organizational capacity through an organizational infrastructure, particularly by the allocation of financial and human resources, the adjustment of food and beverages available and strong leadership support. Paper 2 reports the barriers to the implementation of the national guidelines for healthy school meals as perceived by the principals, project leaders, teachers, and students. Four categories of barriers were identified: (1) the lack of adaptation of the guidelines to the target group, (2) the lack of resources and funding, (3) conflicting values and goals, and (4) access to unhealthy food outside the school. These findings suggest that there are differences in the barriers perceived by the staff, who are responsible for the implementation of the intervention, and the students, who are the target group. Paper 3 reports how physical structures, represented by (i) the type of consumer products, (ii) the availability of facilities in the school buildings, and (iii) the students’ access to neighbourhood facilities, contributed to the availability of food and beverages consistent with the national guidelines. The findings suggest that the degree of implementation was influenced by the type of consumer products available, the facilities in the school buildings, and the regulation of access to neighbourhood facilities. A lack of adequate canteen facilities influenced the selection of food on offer, food safety, and capacity. Conclusion: This thesis shows that implementation is a complex process, which influenced the extent to which three schools met the Norwegian national guidelines for healthy school meals. The findings suggest that the schools’ intentions regarding the implementation of the guidelines were mainly focused on enabling factors, such as the allocation of resources, the adjustment of the food and beverages offered to accommodate the available resources and infrastructure, changes in the school timetable, and the provision of leadership support. There was less focus on predisposing and reinforcing factors at the school level. The findings also indicate that the schools focused on implementing the essential features of the national guidelines that suited their needs. However, the selection of elements from the guidelines upon which to focus affected the degree of their implementation. The national guidelines represent a national policy aimed at changing institutional factors at the school level. The findings of this study suggest that the lack of canteen facilities, funding, and competence limited the schools’ ability to deliver a quality service and were barriers to the successful implementation of the guidelines. Furthermore, implementing the guidelines drew time away from the core business of schooling. The schools’ role in health promotion is a statement of the national school policy. However, these findings indicate that healthy school meals are not regarded by the staff as an obvious responsibility of schools, nor were the schools resourced to fulfil their role in the delivery of healthy school meals. Implications: This study has several implications for practice and research. The findings suggest that principals must use both leadership and management strategies to address the teachers’ predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling factors. The implementation of the intervention in schools focused on changing the school organization rather than the individuals involved, and therefore the schools are recommended to actively adopt a whole-school approach. To reduce the barriers to students’ healthy eating, it may be beneficial to give stronger focus on accommodating the students’ needs and preferences by increasing the availability and accessibility of healthy food. Cooperation with municipal kitchens or private food enterprises could allow schools to offer more-attractive healthy school meals with high standards of food safety. The national authorities are encouraged to revise the national guidelines for healthy school meals to make them a stronger and more influential policy document by including implementation guidelines. Further research is required to optimize the implementation process

Children’s experienced and imaginary stories about lunch packs and lunch breaks: Associations and perceptions of school lunch among primary school students in Norway

This article examined Norwegian students' associations with lunch packs and lunch breaks in primary schools, highlighting the Norwegian school meal system. Empathy-based stories were used; that is, participants were asked to write on a story about a good or a bad school lunch, either based on actual experiences or imagination. The data included stories from 181 fifth graders (105 girls and 76 boys) aged 10–11 years. Additionally, this study employed a social-constructivist approach. The analysis of the stories on the lunch packs resulted in four sub-themes: food and sensory properties of food; food norms and the violation of the norms; physical and psychological consequences of (not) eating lunch; and expressions of peer-relations and family bonds. The analysis of the stories on lunch breaks resulted in two sub-themes: social interaction and simultaneous activity, and contextual factors. In the stories the lunch pack was found to evoke both enthusiasm and discontent. Students' associations and perceptions of the food were often related to how it looked, smelled, and tasted. Furthermore, a clear feature of the stories concerning lunch break in the classroom was that the students were concerned with the social aspects of the eating situation, such as interacting with classmates by chatting, watching television, or listening to music together. This study can contribute to a deeper understanding of children's experiences with a school meal system used in countries within and outside the Nordic region

Teoriens manglende plass i praksissamtalen

I denne artikkelen settes søkelyset på praksissamtalen som gjennomføres når lærerstudenter er i praksis. Studentgruppen møter praksislærer på praksisskolen og faglærer fra høgskolen etter en planlagt og gjennomført undervisningsøkt. En av intensjonene i en integrert lærerutdanning er å utvikle lærerprofesjonalitet ved å koble praksis og teori.Gjennom fokusgruppeintervju med to studentgrupper undersøkte vi problemstillingen: Hvordan opplever og forstår lærerstudentene praksissamtalens hensikt, innhold og kontekst? Teoretisk utgangspunkt for analysen var ulike tilnærminger til profesjoners kunnskapsgrunnlag og litteratur om relasjonsaspektet i faglige dialoger.Studentenes sterke vektlegging av relasjonelle og emosjonelle aspekter ved praksissamtalens kontekst og deres manglende forståelse av teoriens plass i samtalen, var iøynefallende i dette datamaterialet. Deres forståelse av praksis og teori som to atskilte verdener bekreftet tidligere undersøkelser. Resultatene viser at utfordringer og støtte må balanseres i den faglige praksissamtalen, slik at det relasjonelle aspektet bidrar til å fremme, ikke hemme, faglige utfordringer i samtalen.Med utgangspunkt i resultatene drøftes studentenes behov for trygghet og trivsel og deres sårbarhet i veiledningssamtaler, opp mot behovet for utvikling av lærerprofesjonalitet gjennom profesjonens allsidige kunnskapsgrunnlag. Artikkelen argumenterer for at det å utfordre kan være en form for støtte, og at ulike kunnskapsformer bør praktiseres i en dialogisk praksissamtale for at studentene skal oppleve helhet og sammenheng i lærerutdanningen.Nøkkelord: praksissamtale, lærerutdanning, lærerprofesjonalitet, teori/praksis, kunnskapsformer, dialogAbstractThis article focuses on the student-supervisor conversations that take place when student teachers are out in practice. Following planned teaching sessions at their practice schools, student groups meet with their practice-training supervisors and subject teachers from the college. This helps to fulfil one of the aims of an integrated teacher education programme, which is to develop teacher pro¬fessionalism by connecting practice and theory.Based on focus-group interviews with two student groups, we investigated the question: How do student teachers experience and perceive the purpose of the student-supervisor conversations in practice – the content and context? The theoretical basis for the analysis was various approaches to the knowledge basis of professions, and literature about issues of relations in professional conversations.A striking feature of the material was the great stress the students placed on the relational and emotional aspects of the student-supervisor conversations, and their lack of understanding of the role of theory in the conversation. Their perception of practice and theory as two distinct worlds confirms earlier research findings. The results reveal that there must be a balance between challenges and support in the professional conversations, so that the relational aspect can help to promote rather than inhibit discussions of professional challenges.Based on the results, the discussion highlights the students’ need for security and well-being, and their vulnerability in the supervision conversations, juxtaposed to the need to develop teacher professionalism founded on the profession’s comprehensive knowledge base. This article argues that challenging may be a kind of support, and that both practical and theoretical forms of knowledge are important if students are to experience the totality and connections within teacher education in a dialogical student-supervisor conversation.Keywords: student-supervisor conversation, teacher education, teacher pro-fessionalism, theory/practice, forms of knowledge, dialogu

Fysiske faktorers betydning for mattilbudet i barnehagene - en casestudie

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to put focus on food and meal situation in the kindergarten. We have carried out a case study in two kindergartens and the data material consists of observations and interviews. The results showed that the physical structures such as the food and drink offer, structural facilities and the physical community are important for the food and meal provision in the kindergarten. The provision of food and drink varied between the two cases, this can be explained by how the kindergartens organized the preparation of the meal. Emphasis of the dining environment was different in the two cases, which in turn created a different atmosphere around the meal. It was also different practices whether the staff ate together with the children or not. When the staff ate the same food as the children, the meals were in a greater extent characterized by the adults' needs, including increased demands on hygiene, more delicate garnished food, greater food selection and the increased focus on the dining environment. The distance to the nearest grocery store had little impact, while on the other hand, cooperation with food suppliers had great importance for food and meal provision in the kindergarten. Sammendrag: Case studien har sett på fysiske faktorer som kan hemme eller fremme muligheter for helsefremmende handling i barnehagen. Resultatene viste at mattilbudet i barnehagen var påvirket av hva som tilbys av mat/drikke, bygningsmessige fasiliteter og det fysiske nærmiljøet. Barnehagene hadde ulik praksis med å spise med barna. Når voksne spiser samme maten som barna, ser det ut som måltidene blir formet etter voksnes behov. Som økt krav til hygiene, at maten er delikat servert, større matvareutvalg og økt krav til trivelig spisemiljø. Nærhet til butikk hadde liten betydning, mens derimot samarbeid med grossister for levering av matvarer, hadde stor betydning for mattilbudet i barnehagen

Rammefaktorenes betydning for opplæringen i de praktisk-estetiske fagene - en casestudie

Kunnskapsløftet har til hensikt å bidra til at det gjennomføres systemendringer i grunnopplæringen. Formålet med denne artikkelen er derfor å undersøke hvordan ulike rammefaktorer påvirker skolens tilrettelegging av opplæringen i de praktisk-estetiske fagene på 6. trinn. Studien er en sammenlignende casestudie. Data ble samlet inn på to barneskoler og inkluderer observasjoner, intervjuer og dokumenter. Resultatene viser at spesielt skolens forståelse av det pedagogiske rammesystemet og hvordan skolen utnytter handlingsrommet knyttet til de administrative rammene og de ressursmessige rammene kan forklare hvordan den enkelte skolen tilrettelegger opplæringen i de praktisk-estetiske fagene. Resultatene viser også hvordan tilretteleggingen varierer mellom skolene. Videre viser funnene at de praktisk-estetiske fagene i liten grad er prioritert i skolens implementering av Kunnskapsløftet. Artikkelen diskuterer også hvordan rammefaktorene påvirker kvaliteten i opplæringen i de praktisk-estetiske fagene

School meal provision, health, and cognitive function in a Nordic setting – the ProMeal-study: description of methodology and the Nordic context

Background: School meals, if both nutritious and attractive, provide a unique opportunity to improve health equality and public health. Objective: To describe the study rationale, data collection, and background of participants in the study ‘Prospects for promoting health and performance by school meals in Nordic countries’ (ProMeal). The general aim was to determine whether overall healthiness of the diet and learning conditions in children can be improved by school lunches, and to capture the main concerns regarding school lunches among children in a Nordic context. Design: A cross-sectional, multidisciplinary study was performed in Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden on pupils (n=837) born in 2003. Results: In total 3,928 pictures of school lunches were taken to capture pupils’ school lunch intake. A mean of 85% of all parents responded to a questionnaire about socioeconomic background, dietary intake, and habitual physical activity at home. Cognitive function was measured on one occasion on 93% of the pupils during optimal conditions with a Stroop and a Child Operation Span test. A mean of 169 pupils also did an Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test after lunch over 3 days. In total, 37,413 10-sec observations of classroom learning behavior were performed. In addition, 753 empathy-based stories were written and 78 focus groups were conducted. The pupils had high socioeconomic status. Conclusions: This study will give new insights into which future interventions are needed to improve pupils’ school lunch intake and learning. The study will provide valuable information for policy making, not least in countries where the history of school meals is shorter than in some of the Nordic countries

The effect of schooling on basic cognition in selected Nordic Countries

The present study investigated schooling effects on cognition. Cognitive data were collected as part of a research project (ProMeal) that investigated school meals and measured the intake of school lunch in relation to children’s health, cognitive function, and classroom learning in four Nordic countries, among children between 10–11 years of age. It was found that Finnish pupils attending 4th grade were not, on any measure, outperformed by Norwegian and Icelandic pupils attending 5th and Swedish pupils attending 4th grade on a task measuring working memory capacity, processing speed, inhibition, and in a subsample on response- and attention control. Moreover, boys were found to perform superior to girls on tasks measuring processing speed. However, girls were found to perform better on tasks related to attention and self-control. The results are discussed in relation to the reciprocal association between cognition and schooling and whether these results reflect quality differences between schools in the four Nordic countries; most notably in comparison to Finland.ProMeal (Prospects for promoting health and performance by school meals in Nordic countries

The effect of lean-seafood and non-seafood diets on fasting and postprandial serum metabolites and lipid species: Results from a randomized crossover intervention study in healthy Aadults

This article belongs to the Special Issue Fish and Meat Consumption: Risks and Benefits.The metabolic effects associated with intake of different dietary protein sources are not well characterized. We aimed to elucidate how two diets that varied in main protein sources affected the fasting and postprandial serum metabolites and lipid species. In a randomized controlled trial with crossover design, healthy adults (n = 20) underwent a 4-week intervention with two balanced diets that varied mainly in protein source (lean-seafood versus non-seafood proteins). Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses were applied to examine the effects of the two diets on serum metabolites. In the fasting state, the lean-seafood diet period, as opposed to the non-seafood diet period, significantly decreased the serum levels of isoleucine and valine, and during the postprandial state, a decreased level of lactate and increased levels of citrate and trimethylamine N-oxide were observed. The non-seafood diet significantly increased the fasting level of 26 lipid species including ceramides 18:1/14:0 and 18:1/23:0 and lysophosphatidylcholines 20:4 and 22:5, as compared to the lean-seafood diet. Thus, the lean-seafood diet decreased circulating isoleucine and valine levels, whereas the non-seafood diet elevated the levels of certain ceramides, metabolites that are associated with insulin-resistance.The study was part of M.S.’s PhD project and financially supported by Aarhus University and through the project “Seafood protein in the prevention of the metabolic syndrome” (Research Council of Norway 200515/I30). The authors also wish to thank the Danish research council FTP for financial support through the project “Advances in food and nutrition research through implementation of metabolomics technologies’ (#274-09-0107)”