Nutrition and Dietetic Students’ Vitamin and Mineral Knowledge and Concurrent Learning and Retention Strategies

Katie Brown; Jenna Ellis; Dana Ogan; Heidi Wengreen

doi:10.31686/ijier.vol4.iss10.615

Authors

Katie Brown University of Idaho, USA
Jenna Ellis University of Idaho, USA
Dana Ogan Central Washington University, USA
Heidi Wengreen Utah State University, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31686/ijier.vol4.iss10.615

Keywords:

teaching methods, learning strategies, dietetics, nutrition

Abstract

Background: The functions, food sources, deficiency symptoms, and toxicity symptoms are important for dietetic professionals to know and apply to community, food service, and clinical settings.
Purpose: To assess nutrition and dietetic students’ knowledge of vitamins and minerals and identify students’ strategies for learning and retaining vitamin and mineral information.
Methodology: Students from three universities in the western United States were invited to participate in cross-sectional study. Participants completed a brief questionnaire that included multiple choice and short answer questions to assess their knowledge of a representative list of 8 vitamins and minerals. The questionnaire also included free-response questions about strategies for retention of vitamin/mineral information. Two researchers independently reviewed responses and identified themes.
Results: Students’ scores on multiple-choice vitamin/mineral questions suggested that they had difficulty remembering details regarding vitamins and minerals. Three themes were identified as common study strategies for learning vitamin and mineral content: repetition, mnemonic devices, and personal application.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that further research assessing the increased use of repetition, mnemonic devices, and especially personal application in dietetics education curriculum are warranted.

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Author Biographies

Katie Brown, University of Idaho, USA

School of Family and Consumer Sciences
Jenna Ellis, University of Idaho, USA

School of Family and Consumer Sciences
Dana Ogan, Central Washington University, USA

Department of Health Science
Heidi Wengreen, Utah State University, USA

Department of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences

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