Dietary education in Japanese and Korean middle schools: contents and pedagogical styles from a constructivist perspective

The purpose of this study was to compare home economics textbooks used in Japanese and Korean middle schools from the constructivist perspective to examine whether home economics of both countries can promote constructivist learning. For this, the educational contents of textbooks were analyzed from the constructivist perspective. Pedagogical styles of the texts and exercises were classified into four types: Neutral informative, injunctive, persuasive, and participative. The study data consisted commonly used Japanese textbooks (n = 3) and Korean textbooks (n = 6). Compared to Japanese textbooks, we found that Korean textbooks need contents such as context reflecting historical, cultural, and social situations, which are learning elements from the constructivist perspective. Korean textbooks contained limited dietary problems, and these only related to individuals and families. In both countries, the pedagogical styles were usually participative style in exercises (Japan: 61.5%, Korea: 60.4%), but in texts, the proportion of participative style, reflecting the social constructivist perspective, was low (Japan: 5.7%, Korea: 0.7%). It is recommended that systems be established to support the successful implementation of constructivist learning by providing clearer textbook-writing guidelines tailored to constructivist learning, textbook accreditation standards, and curriculum content that reflects a constructivist perspective in teacher education programs.