Assessment of student-teachers’ attitude towards breakfast meals: A case of Al-Faruq College of Education

Abstract

The skipping of breakfast among the adult youth, especially students in senior high schools colleges of education is a global issue that requires full attention of stakeholders in education to address it. In this study the Theory of Planned Behaviour was explored as an acclaimed model to analyze student-teachers’ attitude towards breakfast consumption in the Al-Faruq College of Education in Wenchi, the Bono region of Ghana to ascertain the causes of this phenomenon and propose suitable interventions to address this problem. The mixed approach method was employed describe student-teacher’s general disposition about the patronage of breakfast meals served in the College’s dining hall and the causes of non-consumption of the aforementioned meals among the study target group. The researcher used 715 studentteachers at the various academic levels as the population. To give credence to the study, the researcher used the randomized stratification sampling method to select a sample size of 359 respondents, which represented 50.2% of the population. A survey questionnaire was and two interview guides were used to elicit responses from the respondents. The study established that skipping of breakfast is a common place in the Al-Faruq College of Education and as a result has led to 20% to 30% student-teachers developing negative attitudes toward breakfast meals served in the dining hall of the Al-Faruq College of Education. The study found that late serving of breakfast, low quantity and poor quality of the breakfast served among others were the causes of non-patronage of breakfast meals because they were not of high quality. The study, therefore, recommended that dining hall and meals orientation of student-teachers should be organized, strict enforcement of dining hall rules and regulation, and the keeping of the dining hall clean to attract student-teachers.