Problem-Based Learning in Foods and Nutrition Classes

This article focuses on the use of problem-based learning in high school foods and nutrition classes. Problem-based learning, an instructional approach that promotes active learning, is the elaboration of knowledge that occurs through discussion, answering questions, peer teaching, and critiquing. Students are confronted with a simulated or real problem or a question to which they must formulate or seek a possible solution. To accomplish an objective for a unit of instruction on salads, a teacher used problem-based learning. The objective was to identify and distinguish characteristics of eight types of salad greens. In this foods and nutrition class, students learned the content about salad greens while solving the problem of appearance and taste.