Dr Eleftheria Werkhoven
Dr Thea Werkhoven is an academic at the University of Sydney, lecturing in nutrition and conducting health research.
- Origin and dissemination of weight based attitudes amongst health professionals and educators and the effect that these attitudes have on overweight and obese youth.
- The importance of accurate nutrition knowledge on weight based attitudes and fat stereotyping.
- Holistic approaches to health including, Health At Every Size and Fitness not Fatness.
- Use of technology in tertiary education and successfully engaging students for long term knowledge acquisition and retention.
At the conclusion of the study, the intervention that Thea designed was found to successfully improve nutrition and obesity knowledge and to have a moderate effect on decreasing weight stigma.
Teaching
The unit that Thea developed is a flagship unit within the Faculty, offered to most students University-wide at any stage of their undergraduate degree. Diet and Nutrition for Health and Sport (EDGU1003) is offered as a general level elective to students without pre-requisites or assumed scientific knowledge, aiming to increase nutrition knowledge resulting in sustainable improvements to personal nutrition habits and behaviours.
The unit is offered four times a year and Thea both coordinates and teaches the elective, with casual staff onboarded as tutors each semester.
Before the restructuring of faculties at the University when the current School was its own faculty, Thea taught on a subject Issues in Nutrition Education (EDUH4054)offered to pre-service health and physical educators where she co-lectured and tutored (2011-3). The subject was designed to increase nutrition knowledge of health and physical educators prior to graduation and was hands-on in its' approach to education.
Honours supervisorship
As part of teaching committments and in line with a love of research, Thea supervises Honours students within the Faculty to conduct research and write up dissertations. Thea's role has been to assist students in conducting literature reviews, submitting research proposals and ethics applications and completing data collection, analysis and interpretation.
She has had 2 students to date who have conducted research into nutrition and weight related attitudes of pre-service educators. In 2016, the Honours student Thea co-supervised went on to be awarded the University Medal for outstanding achievements.
A project investigating student learning and engagement with assessment feedback.
Professional member of the Dietitian's Association of Australia.
2019: Recipient of a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Teaching Excellence award
2016: Winner of the Best Research Paper Award, June for the paper titled 'The necessity of addressing the nutrition knowledge and health related attitudes held by pre-service professionals'.
Publications
Book Chapters
- Bonati, M., Chapman, B., Stenberg, J., Towers, L., Werkhoven, T. (2019). Lecturers' Perspectives on Being Involved in Teaching Students with Intellectual Disability Participating in University Courses. In Patricia OBrien, Michelle L. Bonati, Friederike Gadow, Roger Slee (Eds.), People with Intellectual Disability Experiencing University Life: Theoretical Underpinnings, Evidence and Lived Experience, (pp. 205-216). Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV. [More Information]
Journals
- Werkhoven, T. (2021). Designing, implementing and evaluating an educational intervention targeting weight bias and fat stereotyping. Journal of Health Psychology, 26(12), 2084-2097. [More Information]
- Werkhoven, T. (2020). An Examination into the Weight-Based Attitudes and Level of Nutrition Knowledge Possessed by Pre-Service Health Professionals. Journal of Allied Health, 49(2), 148-152.
- Peralta, L., Werkhoven, T., Cotton, W., Dudley, D. (2020). Professional development for elementary school teachers in nutrition education: A content synthesis of 23 initiatives. Health Behavior and Policy Review, 7(5), 374-396. [More Information]
Other
- Werkhoven, T. (2018), Using a higher education intervention to modify the nutrition knowledge, degree of weight bias and obesity awareness held by pre-service professionals (Thesis submitted in full completion of a Degree in Philosophy, University of Sydney, NSW).
2021
- Werkhoven, T. (2021). Designing, implementing and evaluating an educational intervention targeting weight bias and fat stereotyping. Journal of Health Psychology, 26(12), 2084-2097. [More Information]
2020
- Werkhoven, T. (2020). An Examination into the Weight-Based Attitudes and Level of Nutrition Knowledge Possessed by Pre-Service Health Professionals. Journal of Allied Health, 49(2), 148-152.
- Peralta, L., Werkhoven, T., Cotton, W., Dudley, D. (2020). Professional development for elementary school teachers in nutrition education: A content synthesis of 23 initiatives. Health Behavior and Policy Review, 7(5), 374-396. [More Information]
- Cotton, W., Dudley, D., Peralta, L., Werkhoven, T. (2020). The effect of teacher-delivered nutrition education programs on elementary-aged students: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Preventive Medicine, 20, 1-15. [More Information]
2019
- Bonati, M., Chapman, B., Stenberg, J., Towers, L., Werkhoven, T. (2019). Lecturers' Perspectives on Being Involved in Teaching Students with Intellectual Disability Participating in University Courses. In Patricia OBrien, Michelle L. Bonati, Friederike Gadow, Roger Slee (Eds.), People with Intellectual Disability Experiencing University Life: Theoretical Underpinnings, Evidence and Lived Experience, (pp. 205-216). Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV. [More Information]
2018
- Werkhoven, T., Cotton, W., Dudley, D. (2018). Australian tertiary students' attitudes towards youth obesity in educational institutions. European Physical Education Review, 24(2), 181-193. [More Information]
- Werkhoven, T. (2018), Using a higher education intervention to modify the nutrition knowledge, degree of weight bias and obesity awareness held by pre-service professionals (Thesis submitted in full completion of a Degree in Philosophy, University of Sydney, NSW).
2016
- Werkhoven, T., Cotton, W., Dudley, D. (2016). Narrative review of pedagogical interventions on nutrition knowledge and weight prejudice. Cogent Education, 3(1), 1-12. [More Information]
2015
- Werkhoven, T., Cotton, W., Russell, K. (2015). Weight based stereotyping amongst pre-service health and physical educators. International Journal of e-Healthcare Information Systems (IJe-HIS), 2(1), 31-38. [More Information]
2014
- Werkhoven, T., Cotton, W., Russell, K. (2014). Pre-service health and physical education teachers' obesity-related nutrition knowledge and food habits. Journal of the Home Economics Institute of Australia, 21(3), 2-11.