Validation of educational technology to promote healthy eating at school. Introduction

Abstract

Food and Nutrition Education can favor the formation of healthy eating habits in the school environment. However, there is a shortage of materials that helps teachers to include it in a transversal way in the school curriculum. Objective. The present study aimed to validate an educational technology to assist teachers to act as promoters of healthy eating in the school environment. Materials and methods. This is a methodological study of content validation and appearance of an activity book to assist teachers to include food and nutrition education across the Brazilian school curriculum. The Content Validity Index (CVI) was used and 15 judges from three specialties participated: 1) content judges (nutritionists); 2) technical judges (pedagogues); and 3) design and marketing judges. After the first evaluation, an adjustment was made in the educational technology, incorporating the expert's suggestions and, subsequently, it was evaluated by the target group: 35 elementary school I teachers. After the evaluations, the CVI, the Suitability Assessment of Materials and the Cronbach's alpha were calculated to evaluate, used to guarantee the quality and understanding of the educational material, and the reliability of the instruments. Results. The proportion of agreement of nutritionists was 0.99, of the pedagogues 1.0, of the design specialists was 84.6%, while of the target audience was 92.1%. These findings indicate that educational technology has adequate content, writing style, and appearance, in addition to good organization and motivation for reading the target group. Conclusion. The validated material is expected to be an important tool for including food and nutrition education in the school environment.