Date of Award

1993

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Education Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Education

First Supervisor

Susan Nulsen

Second Supervisor

Frank Dymond

Abstract

Studies have found that between 80 and 90 percent of home economics teachers use commercially sponsored teaching materials in their classrooms. The literature suggests that in some cases teachers do not have the skills for evaluating these materials and may be unsuspectingly endorsing the products used in their classrooms. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not the use of brand specific teaching materials had the potential to influence the development of brand awareness in Year 8 Food for Fitness students exposed to these materials. Test instruments which reflect Fishbein's theory of reasoned action were developed to measure any changes in student responses. Four types of items were used in the questionnaire; Sentence Completion, True/False, Word Association and Ranking Items. Two classes of students (N=39) at a large metropolitan Senior High School in Western Australia were pretested on the instrument and both were posttested after a teaching topic involving dairy foods. During the teaching programme one class was exposed to commercially identifiable teaching materials and products while the other class used only generic materials and products without any brand identifying labels. The results of this study showed that students who were exposed to brand identifiable products and teaching materials were influenced to respond favourably towards the brands that had been used in class and that this influence was maintained, at least over a short period of time.

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