An interventional study of The Teacher Education and Classroom Habits (T.E.A.C.H.) Program in Child Obesity, sponsored by Florida International University. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-04-15.
Sponsored by Florida International University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
Using a randomized control design, this study seeks to develop and evaluate a nutrition intervention to increase Montessori teachers' nutrition knowledge, nutrition self-efficacy, nutrition teaching self-efficacy and cultural food competence to improve teachers' eating behaviors, nutrition teaching practices, classroom food practices, and teacher-parent communication. This study will examine the feasibility and efficacy of a nutrition intervention for teachers which will include a nutrition education program via an online platform and hands-on Montessori-based curriculum to teach nutrition in the classroom. Teachers from multiple schools will be recruited using the public national Montessori listserv. This study will enhance teachers' nutrition knowledge which may increase their nutrition teaching practices and improve their personal nutrition habits. Improving teachers' personal and classroom nutrition practices may improve teachers' personal health outcomes and may positively impact their students through modeling of healthy behaviors and improving the classroom food environment.
1,117 studies on the registry are indexed under Pediatric Obesity; 189 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 95 is close to the median of 103 across 862 interventional studies indexed under Pediatric Obesity.
Browse Pediatric Obesity studies →Florida International University is the lead sponsor of 102 studies on the registry; 18 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Teachers were considered eligible to participate in the study if they taught in early childhood classrooms (students 3 to 6 years old), were ≥ 18 years old, and had access to an electronic device with internet connection and audiovisual capabilities.
Exclusion Criteria:
Teachers were deemed ineligible to participate if they were not fluent in English (written \& verbal) or had plans to leave their place of employment during the study timeframe
Participants in this arm received the 6-week online T.E.A.C.H. program.
Behavioral: The Teacher Education and Classroom Habits (T.E.A.C.H.) Program
The T.E.A.C.H. Program utilized essential constructs of the Social Cognitive Theory to deliver virtual nutrition education to Montessori teachers over a 6-week period. The intervention consisted of four program components: 1. An interactive online nutrition education platform with 6 modules was developed using a WordPress website. Each module contained 5 topics including adult nutrition, child nutrition, classroom food practices, cultural practices, and teacher-parent communication. Teachers were provided login information via email containing a unique identifier to be used as their username and were prompted to complete one module per week for 6 weeks; 2. Live weekly virtual education sessions were held via Zoom to supplement and reinforce the online learning experience; 3. A Montessori-based nutrition curriculum with 6 weekly lessons to utilize in the classroom was provided to each participant; 4. Educational handouts to be disseminated to parents.
Change from Baseline in the mean Nutrition Knowledge at 12 week follow-up
Teachers' nutrition knowledge was measured using subscales 1 and 2 from the revised General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire (GNKQ-R).
Time frame: From enrollment to the end of the 12 week follow-up.
Change from Baseline in the mean Nutrition Self-efficacy at 12 week follow-up
Nutrition self-efficacy was determined using the Dewar's Nutrition Self-Efficacy Scale.
Time frame: From enrollment to the end of the 12 week follow-up.
Change from Baseline in the mean Nutrition teaching self-efficacy at 12 week follow-up
Nutrition teaching self-efficacy was determined using the Nutrition Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale.
Time frame: From enrollment to the end of the 12 week follow-up.
Change from Baseline in the mean cultural competence at 12 week follow-up
The Multicultural Teaching Competency Scale Teachers' was utilized to measure teachers' cultural competence.
Time frame: From enrollment to the end of the 12 week follow-up.
Change from Baseline in the mean classroom eating behaviors at 12 week follow-up
Teachers' eating behaviors were measured using the Teacher's Classroom Eating Behaviors tool
Time frame: From enrollment to the end of the 12 week follow-up.
Change from Baseline in the mean classroom food practices at 12 week follow-up
Classroom food practices were determined using Classroom Food-Related Practices-to-Limit Scale.
Time frame: From enrollment to the end of the 12 week follow-up.
Change from Baseline in the mean nutrition teaching practices at 12 week follow-up
Subscale 2 of the Nutrition Education Practices (NEP) Survey for Teachers and Foodservice Directors was utilized to measure nutrition teaching practices.
Time frame: From enrollment to the end of the 12 week follow-up.
Change from Baseline in the mean teacher-parent nutrition communication at 12 week follow-up
Teachers' communication with parents was measured using subscale 2 of the Teacher-Parent Contact Scale.
Time frame: From enrollment to the end of the 12 week follow-up.
Plan to share: No
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This study is completed, as verified in Apr 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Florida International University