Abstract
The topic is an inquiry about how to increase and enhance enrollment in Home Economics. There is an increasing importance in our society to be educated in health and wellness, to encourage creativity and innovation over skills and technique work in Home Economics, and to promote lifelong skills. Currently, we define life skills in association with learning to collaborate, problem solve, critical think, problem solve, collaborate, being able to cook with safe practices and choose healthy foods for consumption. In order to have this, students and parents need to realize the huge positive impacts and significance this course brings to individuals. In order to increase and enhance enrollment in Home Economics, we need to find out the characteristics and learning styles of our students and use this to cater Home Economics for this generation of students. We need to engage the students so that they have a desire to enroll in this course. Through research and upon observations from practicum, students in this generation learn best through creative learning and being engaged through story-telling, games and watching videos/movies and this is the approach I will take during my long practicum to target to these students preferences. Future directions include future planning with the school on how to further promote Home Economics to students and parents and to discuss this during staff meetings. Also, I want to stay connected with the school to find out if the course enrollment has increased for Home Economics for the next school year in September 2017.
Inquiry Question
How can you increase and enhance enrollment in Home Economics?
Personal Experience
I decided to choose this question because this topic has always been controversial. During my role as a student teacher at my practicum school along with several readings I have read has inspired me to explore this issue. Home Economics is associated with so many benefits and I have come across a myriad of the readings that provides evidence for this stance but there are always so few students enrolled in the class. Regardless of all the studies and research that have shown that Home Economics has a myriad of benefits on an individual such as relieving stress, helping children become creative thinkers, fostering accomplishment and improvement, improving hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, being able to design and make clothes that fit your own size and style, being more aware of your own health and nutrition etc. home economics is still having problems being implemented into the curriculum (Hamilton et al., 2006). Granting all this, this raises the question of, why is this constantly an issue both in post-secondary school and in high schools. The solution to this is we need to make Home Economics more relevant to today’s society and inform students and parents about the relevance of Home Economics to everyday life.
Significance
This is significant and relevant to me and the rest of society because in terms of the food studies part of home economics, statistics have shown that approximately “35% of adolescents are overweight or obese, a prevalence that approaches 50% in minority populations” as an alert for the huge gap in nutrition knowledge that students are lacking (Dannelke, 2011). Certainly, Home Economics education is vital in teaching students about making healthy food choices, learning portion sizes, food preparation, nutrition, the social, cultural and emotional relationship to food and the scientific aspects of food etc. (Dannelke, 2011). For this reason, it is vital to raise awareness and let all students and parents know the serious health damages that can occur due to a lack of knowledge in food and nutrition. I want to increase enrollment in Home Economics in order to stop the spread of unhealthy food consumption that is deadly to society. It only makes sense to inculcate healthy values in children during their developmental years. This theory can be backed up by the abrupt increase in the number of obese children as well as the unhealthy consumption habits that are encouraged by capitalist corporations such as fast food chains (Dannelke, 2011). Home Economics imbues healthy habits in children during their formative years enabling them to make healthier choices later on in life. Students can benefit from food studies targeted to address hygiene, nutrition and food safety and as a result implement personal lifestyle changes (Baker et al., 2012). Such education could potentially decrease the growing preventable diseases (Baker et al.,2012). In addition, hygiene and safe food practices are all life skills that students need to live healthier lives (Fordyce-Voorham, 2011).
Textiles is significant to students because it can bring personal development, success and growth in a student and this is less likely to be felt in other core subjects in school (Peterat, 1999). Most importantly, textiles is relevant to students because what they learn is always something they can go back to. A textiles teacher has shared, “it’s a skill for life….learning to repair or recycle their clothing, to take care of their clothing, is an essential life skill” (Peterat, 1999). Students are burdened with so much competitiveness in other courses and home economics allows room for personal growth (Peterat, 1999). In a case study I have read by Vollmer & Werhan 2004, there is evidence that show that there is a renewed enthusiasm and passion in textiles and clothing and this is constantly evolving.
My Inquiry Journey to Date
I am currently at the stage of finishing up with the research and identifying and planning the strategies and ways I can use to enhance and increase enrollment in Home Economics. Through research, I have discovered the attributes and traits of my current students and I wish to use this to plan my lessons towards these students’ traits. Also, through strategies such as linking personal anecdotes to food and creating an enjoyable learning atmosphere, I hope to engage students and it is through this engagement that students will be fond of Home Economics. I plan to implement the research and strategies during my long practicum with the goal of fulfilling my inquiry question of how to increase and enhance enrollment in Home Economics.
Inquiry Design
To enhance enrollment in Home Economics, it is important to apply it to current society’s students. This is significant because in order to enhance enrollment, it is vital to find out the characteristic of current students. I will be conducting interviews with students and teachers to research students’ preferences in ways of learning and keeping a log book of reflections during my long practicum of ideas I observed that particularly engage students.
Students in this generation have more creativity compared to students in past generations (“New Adobe Study,” 2016). Students in current society learn most effectively though hands-on learning (“New Adobe Study,” 2016). Since my practicum school only has foods classes and not textiles, my foods classes will best fit current students because I will need my students to produce products in the food lab that are all hands-on. I will introduce projects that focus on implementing creativity and analyze the results from students and their perspectives of these projects. I want to design the projects so that students can collaborate to solve problems and I will assess them on their use of problem solving and collaboration instead of just focusing on skills or their final product (Rohan, 2006). This is relevant to the new curriculum and caters to current society’s love for innovation and creativity.
Based on research from Fordyce-Voorham (2011), it is important for the Home Economics teacher to be creating an “enjoyable atmosphere that allows young people to experience success through practice, trail, and error”. Since students enjoy watching television at this age I will make it an enjoyable experience for students by allowing them to watch cooking shows or other food/health videos during class (Fordyce-Voorham, 2011). Ultimately, for my inquiry, I will identify with students’ opinion of what engages them and implement them if reasonable.
Links to Practice
I have learned through my interviews and written reflections on students and teachers that by engaging my students, I can enhance student enrollment. Also, I learned that through hands on learning and encouraging of innovation it will create better preparation for students to find jobs and careers and helps students execute challenges in current society. As well, I learned that my inquiry design for Home Economics fulfills current society’s way of learning and increasing enrollment in this course can occur successfully (“New Adobe Study,” 2016). Overall, I expect that this type of learning helps foster future success in comparison to the old curriculum (Athanasou, 2009.)
Moreover, I expect to find out that by offering cooking lab projects, students can implement hands-on learning and critical thinking and find this type of learning style to be most effective and enjoyable for them. As well, I expect to find out that through engaging my class using “story-telling”, “games”, “linking history, amusing anecdotes and culture with the food” to teach information, I can make Home Economics class more interesting compared to what they were exposed to. I hope to increase enrollment in Home Economics through such engaging activities and this is something I expect to happen during my practicum. Lastly, I also learned that praising students for their effort in participating in these food experiences, and disregarding the mistakes they make because it is part of a development when you learn, will enhance enrollment (Fordyce-Voorham, 2011). This is because having such a positive attitude for learning in my classroom can encourage further enrollment in this program.
Furthermore, I learned that when students are taught nutrition they can make healthier and more nutritious choices in foods to prevent obesity and other illnesses that are associated with unhealthy food consumption habits and I will teach this during my food demonstrations and nutrition lessons. I expect that students will be able to implement personal lifestyle changes when hygiene, nutrition, food safety, portion sizes, food preparation etc. are all addressed in school and will have this same domino effect on their own children.
I learned that Home Economics prepares students for independent living and I expect that this can reduce negative attitudes from parents about this course (Fordyce-Voorham, 2011). By seeing their own children actively participate in food preparation, grocery shopping and cooking meals for the family, parents can improve their attitude towards Home Economics and thus, increase enrollment in this program. Students will also find that having this skill is important for their future and thus enroll in Home Economics.
Since studies have shown that students in this generation have more creativity, near the end of the level 1’s food dinner unit, for four consecutive classes, students do an end of unit project called Iron Chef Competition: Cultural Protein Dinner Dish. This project focus on implementing creativity as well as hands-on learning. I want to design the projects so that students can inquire and do their own research in order to develop and cook a dinner dish of their own. In this end of the unit project, students use what they learned in the unit and be creative thinkers in order to design their own dinner recipes keeping in mind of proteins and other cultural flavors which was the main focus of the dinner unit. The project is divided into research, design, planning, preparation, and final food lab where students cook the final product they designed. In the last two classes of the unit, I designed a mini project so that students can collaborate to solve problems and I will assess them on their use of problem solving and collaboration instead of just focusing on their cooking skills and their final product. In this mini project, student design their own casserole recipe with the help of a handout I provide for them with a partner for lab next class. For both projects, I will analyze the results from students and their perspectives of these projects at the end of the project through a survey I create to see if they enjoyed these projects that required creativity and innovation in order to see if this approach to learning in students can increase and enhance enrollment in Home Economics. For the other units that I will be teaching at practicum, I have included similar projects and will also include watching cooking or nutrition related videos. Ultimately, for all the classes I teach, I will have a log book open ready to write about what particularly engages students, because it is this engagement that brings interest to Home Economics and enhances and increases enrollment to this course.
Implications
I hope to increase and enhance enrollment in Home Economics by finding ways to engage my students. My practicum school originally offered textiles and family studies but it got taken out of the school course options due to low numbers of enrollments in these courses. This resulted in teachers getting laid off because it was not necessary for them to teach these subjects anymore. By enhancing enrollment, other educators and I will be able to keep our teaching jobs and continue teaching our specializations. Other educators can be informed to instill creativity in their classes and use storytelling, games, connecting amusing anecdotes with the food to enhance enrollment in Home Economics.
Limitations
Strategies if implemented that are beyond my control are increasing funding of schools by the government or school so that the school can provide the materials and machines needed for the textiles program and groceries and equipment needed for food studies (Uwameiye, 2015). Having a better supply of well-equipped laboratories can help increase enrollment of Home Economics (Uwameiye, 2015). Having this can support the teachers who implement the program so that they can spend more time catering to the students preferences and not be limited by the school budget when creating and designing projects.
Also, it is a challenge to be able to contact and reach parents and change their negative attitudes towards Home Economics. However, I hope that during the parent-teaching interviews I will be taking part in as a student teacher, I can get my word out and be outstandingly active during the interviews to tell them what is nutrition now compared to what they were exposed to back in their high school time. I need to inform them that Home Economics is much more male dominated now and that foods class involves learning about the effects of nutrition and the science around cooking and foods. I plan to also educate the parents that foods class involves learning how to fight obesity and making better grocery decisions as well, it is about learning how to stay healthy instead of focusing solely on the skills of cooking. I wish to do the same with textiles, however, my practicum school does not offer textiles.
Another way to improve parents’ attitude towards Home Economics is to involve parents in workshops, celebratory and cultural days (Fordyce-Voorham, 2011). Since parents have a great impact on what students eat, it is also beneficial to have them join these events and take part in practicing and learning food skills (Fordyce-Voorham, 2011). This will be difficult because a majority of parents will be busy at work and won’t be able to make school hours. In addition, it will be challenging to organize it in my practicum as I will need the school and my school advisor’s permission.
Another potential barrier or issue that might come across is having this balance of lesson planning towards my school advisors’ preferences and balance of implementing my inquiry design in my lessons. My school advisor prefers the traditional style of teaching where the teacher gives a 75 minute food demonstration and the teacher teaches information and knowledge to the students. Also, because long practicum is assessed based on my teaching by my school advisor , it makes it more challenging to allot time for students to implement creativity in their projects and do hands-on learning.
Future Questions
Some of the questions I have are what is my school’s home economics department doing to promote the course to parents and to students? How will you determine if enrollment increases?
Future Directions
I wish to find out what my school is doing to promote the course to parents and to students and I plan to bring it up during staff meetings or during a meeting with the vice-principal. I will also set out a meeting with the Home Economics department to plan and brainstorm ideas of how to promote the course to parents and to students. In the future, I want to see enthusiasm in students about taking Home Economics and see the increase in number of enrollment through contact with my school advisor or during my own personal visit to my practicum school.
Annotated Bibliography
References
Athanasou, J.A. (2009). The Intersection of Vocational Interests with Employment and Course Enrolments. Austrailian Journal of Career Development, 18(1), 8-16
Baker, A., Gilley, J., James, J., & Kimani, M. (2012). ‘High Five to Healthy Living’: A Health Intervention Program for Youth at an Inner City Community Center. Journal of Community Health, 37(1), 1-9. Doi:10.1007/s10900-011-9387-1
Dannelke, L. (2011, March). Where Has Home Economics Gone? — Experts Speak to the Importance of Food Education in Schools. Today’s Dietician. Retrieved October 14, 2016, from http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/030811p8.shtml
Fordyce-Voorham, S. (2011). Identification of essential food skills for skill-based healthful eatng programs in secondary schools. Journal of Nutrition Education And Behavior, 43(2), 116-122. doi:10.1016/j.jneb.2009.12.002
Hamilton, Anita & Hylton, Hilary (2006). Circling Back to Sewing? Time; 12/4/2006, Vol.168 Issue, 23, p100-101
New Adobe Study Shows Gen Z Students and Teachers See Creativity as Key to Success. (2016). Retrieved October 28, 2016, from http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161026005448/en/Adobe-Study-Shows-Gen-Students-Teachers-Creativity
Peterat, L. (1999). Making textile studies matter: Inside outstanding school programs. Vancouver: Pacific Educational Press.
Rohan, L. (2006). A Material Pedagogy: Lessons from Early-Twentieth-Century Domestic Arts Curricula, Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, 6(1), 79 – 101.
Uwameiye, B. (2015). Strategies for Enhancing Student Enrolment in Home Economics Education in Tertiary Institutions in Edo State. International Journal of Economics and Financial Research, 1(8), 106-112. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
Werhan, Carol R., Bucklan, Sandra S. & Vollmer, J. (2004). Finding A Place For Tradition In The Curriculum: A Case Study For Sewing In The Ohio Family And Consumer Sciences Classroom, Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Education, 22(1), 43-56.