Pre-service teacher perceptions of teaching health education online

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaughan Cruickshank ◽  
Casey Mainsbridge
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Health Education ◽  
Teacher Perceptions ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
School Health ◽  
Online Delivery ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Future ◽  
School Health Education ◽  
Personal Reflections

PurposeThe forced shift to online teaching delivery during COVID-19 suppression measures in 2020 was a complex challenge for Australian teachers. Teachers were given very little time to prepare online content and very little professional development to teach online. Their experiences prompted discussion about the abilities of pre-service teachers (PST) to adapt content to online delivery if another pandemic occurred while they were teaching in the future.Design/methodology/approachPST majoring in Health and Physical Education were required to adapt a 4-weeks high school health education unit for online delivery. This study analysed data from PST personal reflections and focus groups to gain a better understanding of their perceptions about teaching health education online and their confidence to adapt tasks and activities from face-to-face delivery or develop unique online tasks.FindingsPST reported varied confidence and competence to plan for and engage in online health education teaching. PST were concerned about student learning and engagement online, and unsure how to best differentiate activities to ensure all student could meet the intended outcomes.Originality/valueLittle is known about the confidence and competence of PST to deliver fully online school health education. It is important to know more about this phenomenon to inform teacher education and teacher professional development to ensure teachers are better prepared for online delivery in the future.

Health education for deaf Romanian children: parents’ opinions

2019 ◽  
Vol 119 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 341-349
Author(s):  
Laura Ionescu ◽  
Lacramioara Ursache ◽  
Adelina Nicolae ◽  
Adriana Conea ◽  
Cristian Potora ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Education ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
School Health ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Smoking Prevention ◽  
Educational Activities ◽  
Content Type ◽  
North West ◽  
School Based ◽  
School Health Education

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on parents of children with hearing disabilities from Romania and has three objectives. First, it assesses their characteristics regarding use of communication technology. Second, it investigates their opinions regarding the importance of school-based education for healthy lifestyle promotion among their children. Third, it evaluates the availability for their involvement in educational activities using face-to-face approach and communication technology dedicated to helping parents to promote healthy lifestyle among their children, as well as factors which influence this availability. Design/methodology/approach The study was performed in October–November 2015 in two schools deserving children with hearing disabilities from North-West part of Romania. Anonymous questionnaire were filled in by 182 parents. Findings The majority of parents recognize the importance of school-based health education and more than 77 per cent totally agree that it should include issues regarding healthy nutrition, promotion of physical activity and smoking prevention. In total, 80.2 per cent of the parents declared that they are interested to participate in educational activities organized periodically at school and 66.5 per cent declared their interest in educational activities developed through communication technology in order to help them to stimulate the adoption of healthy lifestyle among their children. The availability was influenced by residence, educational level, understanding the importance of parents’ involvement, characteristics regarding the use of communication technology. Originality/value This represents the first study from Romania investigating the opinions and availability for their involvement with regard to school health education among parents of children with hearing deficiencies. The results have several implications for health education among children with hearing deficiencies and their parents.

Schooling health: the critical contribution of curriculum in the 1980s

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deana Leahy ◽  
Dawn Penney ◽  
Rosie Welch
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Education ◽  
School Health ◽  
Education Curriculum ◽  
Content Type ◽  
School Health Education ◽  
Official Curriculum ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Historical Accounts

Purpose Public health authorities have long regarded schools as important sites for improving children and young people’s health. In Australia, and elsewhere, lessons on health have been an integral component of public health’s strategy mix. Historical accounts of schools’ involvement in public health lack discussion of the role of health education curriculum. The purpose of this paper is to redress this silence and illustrate the ways health education functioned as a key governmental apparatus in Victoria in the 1980s. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on governmentality studies to consider the explicit governmental role of official health education curriculum in the 1980s in Victoria, Australia. The authors conduct a discourse analysis of the three official curriculum texts that were released during this period to consider the main governmental rationalities and techniques that were assembled together by curriculum writers. Findings School health education functions as a key governmental apparatus of governmentality. One of its major functions is to provide opportunities to responsibilise young people with an aim to ensure that that they can perform their duty to be well. The authors demonstrate the central role of policy events in the 1970s and how they contributed to conditions of possibility that shaped versions of health education throughout the 1980s and beyond. Despite challenges posed by the critical turn in health education in the late 1980s, the governmental forces that shape health education are strong and have remained difficult to displace. Originality/value Many public health and schooling histories fail to take into account insights from the history of education and curriculum studies. The authors argue that in order to grasp the complexities of school health education, we need to consider insights afforded by curriculum histories. Historical insights can provide us with an understanding of the changing approaches to governing health in schools.

scholarly journals Parental engagement in school-based health promotion and education

2018 ◽  
Vol 118 (6) ◽  
pp. 513-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace Spencer ◽  
Philip Hood ◽  
Shade Agboola ◽  
Catherine Pritchard
Keyword(s):  
Health Education ◽  
Parental Support ◽  
School Health ◽  
Parental Engagement ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Education Professionals ◽  
School Based ◽  
School Health Education

Purpose Children’s health and life chances are affected by many factors, with parents and schools holding influential roles. Yet relatively little is known about parental engagement in school-based health education and specifically, from the perspectives of health and education professionals. The purpose of this paper is to examine professionals’ perspectives on parental engagement in school-based health education. Design/methodology/approach An exploratory qualitative study was conducted with ten health, education and local authority professionals from a socio-economically deprived area in England. Semi-structured interviews explored the role of professionals within the school health curricula, roles that parents played in school health, and barriers and enablers to parental engagement in school health education. Findings Reported barriers to engagement related to assumptions about parents’ own health behaviours, impacts of funding and inspection regimes, and protected time for health within the school curriculum. Enablers included designated parental support workers based in the school, positive role modelling by other parents, consultation and engagement with parents and a whole school approach to embedding health within the wider curriculum. Practical implications Findings from this study suggest the importance of building meaningful partnerships with parents to complement school health education and improve child health outcomes. Originality/value This paper addresses an important gap in the research on parental engagement in school-based health education from the perspectives of health and education professionals. Effective partnerships with parents are crucial to the success of school health education.

Pedometers and participatory school-based health education – an exploratory study

2014 ◽  
Vol 114 (6) ◽  
pp. 487-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Louisa Bruselius-Jensen ◽  
Dina Danielsen ◽  
Ane Kirstine Viller Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Health Education ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
School Health ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Content Type ◽  
School Health Education ◽  
New Perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how pedometers (simple gadgets that count steps) can be used as tools in participatory health education to enhance primary school children's insights into, and abilities to reflect on, physical activity in their daily life. The paper focuses on how using pedometers fosters participation and enhances reflection concerning physical activity. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on findings from an exploratory project with sixth-grade classes (12-13 years) in four Danish primary schools. The approach is called Imove. In Imove, pupils use pedometers to study their own patterns of physical activity, transform their data into statistics, and use the statistical representation to reflect on how physical activity is integrated into everyday life patterns, and how different activities constitute an active life. Findings – The paper concludes that pedometers support pupils’ participation in studying their own health practices, and the step data provide new insights into, and encourage pupils to reflect on, the way physical activity is formed into everyday patterns. Research limitations/implications – The study is an exploratory one with four participating school classes. The findings need to be further explored by employing similar methodology in studies with more participants. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that pedometers support pupils’ genuine participation in health educational processes. Practical implications – The findings identify simple measuring technologies, such as pedometers, as potent assets in health education learning processes and call for creative thinking in developing health promotion programmes for young people. Originality/value – Measuring technologies play an increasingly critical role in health research, as well as in individual health regulating practices. This paper contributes with a new perspective by demonstrating the educational possibilities of applying pedometers in participatory school health education.

Challenges in teacher for school health education and promotion

2005 ◽  
Vol 12 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 162-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Becky J. Smith ◽  
William Potts-Datema ◽  
Ann E. Nolte
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Health Education ◽  
School Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Health Education ◽  
University Level ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The University ◽  
Health Education And Promotion

The health education and promotion profession is facing a series of teacher preparation challenges related to the delivery of quality school health education/promotion programmes. The challenges occurring in the United States are also present in a variety of other regions as the education structure attempts to ensure that students receive a sound preparation in health education and promotion during their school experience. The challenges can be categorised into the following areas: • Quality and quantity of professional preparation for teachers during their preservice university training; • Need for in-service of teachers already in the K-1 2 workforce (in the USA grades K -12 are broadly equivalent to ages five to 17 years); • University faculty workforce professional development needs; • Research to provide baseline data for future standards development. Because there is a direct connection between community and school and parents and teachers at the K-1 2 level of education, the demand for highly skilled teachers and professional development is playing out at that level much more rapidly than at the university level. The relative isolation of some university faculty and programmes has developed an interesting situation in which many administrators and master teachers at the K-12 level of education have a better grasp and understanding of new teaching and learning strategies and tools than professors at the university level. This has happened at the same time when there is also a shortage of university professors entering school health education/promotion teacher education. This confluence of realities may predicate the need for a radical change in university based teacher preparation in health education/promotion. The overwhelming challenge for many countries including the United States remains the large number of teachers in the current workforce who must be provided professional development experiences. Currently both the National Health Education Standards for K-1 students and teacher preparation standards in health education reflect best practice theory only. There is no national data to support the standards. During the next ten years it is imperative that nationwide data be collected, compiled and analysed on actual learning outcomes for both K-12 students and health education teacher candidates. This will allow the next set of standards at both of the above-mentioned levels to reflect the knowledge and skills that have been actually attained and demonstrated. It will also be a basis for creating revisions and expansions in such a way that national standards can be an actual measure by which student performance can be judged. It is hoped that the rising tide of both national and international interest in having an increasingly health literate population will inspire members of the profession to be creative in the development of educational approaches, strategic partnerships, and funding to put strong systems of teacher preparation in place for the future.

From recipients to partners: children in malaria education in Uganda

2016 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aisha Sembatya Nakiwala
Keyword(s):  
Health Education ◽  
Malaria Control ◽  
Education Program ◽  
School Health ◽  
Health Education Program ◽  
District Health ◽  
Content Type ◽  
School Health Education ◽  
Children’S Participation ◽  
Children's Participation

Purpose – Health education that integrates community participation is essential for malaria control. However, children’s participation is not generally as active as that of adults, thus turning children into recipients, as opposed to partners in malaria control. The purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of how children can transform from mere recipients to active partners in malaria control efforts, by exploring the implementation of a school health education program in Uganda. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative multi-case study involving six schools where the health education program was implemented was undertaken, using six focus group discussions with 72 school children and respondent interviews with 14 teachers and district health promotion staff. Findings – Children acted as health messengers, offered peer support and engaged in environmental management to minimize mosquito breeding. The benefits of the school malaria program included increasing access to malaria information, boosting malaria knowledge, improving children’s self-esteem and their skill as health educators. However, implementation was undermined by hostility from adults, inadequate time and tight school schedules, which should be addressed in future malaria programs. Practical implications – The findings suggest that children can play an important role in malaria programs. Therefore, programs should be sufficiently structured to facilitate children’s participation. Practitioners should be encouraged to be conscious of the applicability of the health promoting school approach to malaria control. Originality/value – This research facilitated a more comprehensive understanding of the role children can play in malaria control, thus providing a basis for their involvement in malaria programs. It also adds to a relatively scarce area of literature on the school health-malaria control nexus.

Ecological and political economy lenses for school health education: a critical pedagogy shift

2018 ◽  
Vol 118 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marty Martinson ◽  
John P. Elia
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Health Education ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
School Health ◽  
Ecological Model ◽  
Model Framework ◽  
Content Type ◽  
School Health Education ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Critical Pedagogies

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to critically examine school health education in the USA and present alternative approaches for more critical and comprehensive health education. Design/methodology/approach An ecological model framework is used to identify the limitations and opportunities for improvement in school health education in the USA. An argument is made for school health education that embraces ecological approaches, political economy theory, and critical pedagogies. Findings US schools have been tasked with providing health education that is primarily rooted in individualistic approaches. Often missing from this education is recognition of the social and structural determinants of health that greatly influence one’s ability to practice the health behaviors promoted in schools. This raises pedagogical and ethical concerns, which can be addressed by teaching health education that is grounded in ecological and political economy understandings of health and in critical pedagogies that allow students to more comprehensively and accurately understand health, how their worlds influence health, and their agency within those worlds. Practical implications This paper offers justification for a critical model of school health education and for the professional preparation of school health educators that is grounded in critical pedagogy and ecological approaches. Originality/value This work complements other research on critical health education by adding explicit integration of the ecological model and the political economy theory within critical pedagogies.

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