Fuente: Sustainability - Revista científica (MDPI) Sustainability, Vol. 18, Pages 5424: Food Waste in Primary Education Based on Prior Knowledge: An Exploratory Pilot Case Study in a Rural School in Spain
Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su18115424
Authors:
Uxue Leon-Aznar
Maite M. Aldaya

Food waste is a global problem involving the loss of natural resources, human labour and money. This paper presents an educational proposal implemented as an exploratory pilot case study in a rural primary school classroom in Spain, aimed at raising awareness of food waste and promoting pupils’ involvement in its reduction. The Sustainable Development Goals and the European framework of sustainability competences (GreenComp) enabled the work to be aligned with current education legislation and global sustainability challenges. The intervention was assessed through a questionnaire administered before and after the implementation of the proposal to analyse students’ progress, adapted rubrics, and sets of questions used to review the content covered. The comparison between the initial and final questionnaires, analysed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, showed statistically significant differences (W = 3.0; p = 0.019), suggesting an improvement in students’ knowledge after the implementation of the teaching proposal. The results suggest that working from pupils’ initial misconceptions may support both understanding of key concepts related to food waste (such as the causes of food waste, use of resources in its production and the difference between expiry dates and best-before dates) and the development of sustainability competences, particularly critical thinking, systemic thinking and adaptability in consumption-related situations. Overall, this pilot study suggests that food waste can be meaningfully addressed in primary education not only through school-canteen practices, but also through classroom-based activities grounded in pupils’ prior ideas and supported by hands-on, competence-oriented activities.