An exploration of students’ reflections on understanding an eco-friendly food challenge

There is significant variability in the opportunities available for students to develop an understanding of the food system and sustainability issues. It is also evident that there is little scholarship within nutrition and dietetics regarding student engagement and learning resulting from approaches to sustainability-focused pedagogy. Theory of experiential learning suggests that a student will learn more effec-tively if they are subjected to direct experience. Learning takes place through the interplay between acting, experiencing, thinking and reflecting. In this study we describe the outcomes of an experiential learning approach to engaging students in developing their understanding of sustainable food and dietary practices. In the assessment task, students were required to engage in a 3 week ‘eco-friendly food challenge’. Students self-selected one of four set eco-food challenges, set a weekly goal and then blogged about their experience at the end of the week. Student learning was scaffolded by provision of a range of learning opportunities relevant to this assessment task. In order to identify the outcomes from this task content analysis of the blogs was undertaken, with content categorised according to the 4 challenges. NVivo was used to manage data and facilitate analysis. Major themes from the content analysis will be presented with a particular emphasis on 1) the range of activities undertaken by students and 2) students reported learning through engaging in this experience. This research demonstrates the value of experiential learning approaches to developing students’ knowledge and engagement regarding food and nutrition issues relating to sustainability