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ISHN has gathered knowledge about Understanding Educators: Backgrounds, Beliefs, Work Lives & Concerns as part of better efforts to integrate health and social programs within education systems. Several articles in Volume 109, 2022 of Teaching and Teacher Education provide much to add to our understanding. Teacher beliefs, concerns, working conditions, career patterns as well as different aspects of teacher education and development are discussed in the articles. If we are to work more effectively with teachers, we must better understand these things.
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The unique challenges related to building teams of teachers (and others) to improve programs and school practices has been discussed in educational research but less in health and social development. There is very little planning time in the teacher's work day, the regular working environment (the classroom) is isolated from other adults, teacher backgrounds are often derived solely from their previous experiences as students and their relatively low professional status makes other prone and willing to "fix the teachers" as their primary strategy.This is why the July 2019 issue of Educational Leadership should be of interest to school health & development advocates. The issue examines the barriers to teacher teams, "collective efficacy" as a driving concept, ensuring that team meetings work for teachers and treating teachers like professionals. Read more.....
A health impact study done in the United States shows that The Every Student Succeeds Act Creates Opportunities to Improve Health and Education at Low-Performing Schools. In the health sector, health impact studies of different policies and laws in an increasing practice. This study shows that the new education act in the US, by making it easier to implement a healthy schools approach, would benefit student learning in schools in disadvantaged communities. "Studies consistently show a strong correlation between educational level and health over a lifetime, even after controlling for demographic characteristics such as income. Those with more education live longer and have a lower risk of chronic diseases, such as diabetes. However, about 1 in 6 U.S. public schools—more than 16,000—did not meet state standards for student achievement in the 2014-15 school year. The Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts, conducted a health impact assessment (HIA) of how needs assessments and improvement plan strategies, including expanded family and community involvement, might affect achievement and related health outcomes across diverse student populations.he research reviewed by the HIA team suggests that several steps could be taken to improve needs assessments in low-performing schools. These steps are all consistent with approaches such as healthy schools, community schools and safe schools. Read more....
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN) Data from the 2015 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) show that students with higher grades are less likely than their peers with lower grades to participate in certain risk behaviors. Compared to students with lower grades (mostly D’s/F’s), students with higher grades (mostly A’s) are; Less likely to be currently sexually active, Less likely to drink alcohol before the age of 13 and Less likely to have ever used marijuana. While these results do not prove a causal link between academics and health, these associations are important because they confirm that across nearly all 30 health risk behaviors examined, students who reported engaging in unhealthy behaviors struggle academically. ISHN Comment: The caution in the report stating that higher grades and healthier behaviours is a correlation is a good one. A more convincing argument has been presented in the recent New Zealand study which shows that better academic scores are correlated with schools that have introduced a health promoting approach. Read more...
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN) An analysis of Health Promoting Schools program in New Zealand shows clear educational benefits. According to a new release from the NZ government, "Independent analysis has found that the Health Promoting Schools service is having a hugely positive impact on student outcomes, Health Minister Jonathan Coleman says.Key findings in the analysis released today include that students in Health Promoting Schools have 29 per cent better reading performance, 60 per cent increased attendance and 42 per cent fewer stand-downs and or suspensions when compared to schools not participating." The full report notes that "To model the impact of the HPS approach on these outcome variables, the following indicators were used: HPS facilitator performance, HPS health and wellbeing rubric performance, degree of school involvement in the HPS service, school engagement and relationship with whānau, Educational Review Office (ERO) cycle category, and school decile." Using various multivariate modelling techniques, data was analysed and tested in relation to its structure (Structural Equation Modelling: SEM) Read More
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN) An insightful article in Issue #7, 2017 of Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance offers some insights into the dilemmas related to health education and physical education. It suggests that teaching to promote student autonomy is a better way to motivate students to be physically active over the life course. The argument for teaching methods that promote student autonomy in PE is a good one, offering both a underlying behavioural theory (Self-Determination) and several practical strategies for interactions with students. The paper also discusses the dilemmas often faced by teachers as they need to control their students to create an orderly learning environment while still encouraging student autonomy. My only hesitation about the article rests with the underlying assumption that HE and PE teachers should be accepting responsibility for the behaviours of their students over the rest of their lives. We do not hold language arts teachers responsible for their students life-long reading habits, only that they can read adequately when they graduate. yes, teaching strategies and methods must consider student motivations and attitudes/values/beliefs and these can be measured and monitored as realistic outputs for instructional programs. But, no, schools should not be held accountable for the many, many other factors in society and in our lives that cause us to establish our life-long habits and preferences. Read more...
(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN) A commentary in Volume 165, 2016 of Social Science & Medicine discusses how disease focused advoacy movements in the US could become a united force for greater, holistic investments in health and health care. This " critical review of recent literature on U.S. social movements concerned with matters of health and illness prompts reconsideration of the prevailing conception of such movements as necessarily isolated and particularistic. With a focus on disease-constituency-based mobilization—presently the most potent model of efficacious activism to be found in the domain of health and illness in the United States—I argue that such activism may tend in two directions: a specific response to an imminent disease threat, and a bridging of collective action frames and identities that can lead to connections across differences and broader mobilization. Through close analysis of patient group mobilization and its distinctive orientation toward knowledge and expertise, I argue that patient groups in practice may connect with or influence one another or a range of other forms of mobilization in relation to health, and I examine the “linkage mechanisms”—spillover, coalition, and frame amplification—by which this can occur. Rather than imagine a stark opposition between particularistic, single-issue health politics, on the one hand, and universalistic efforts to transform the meaning and practice of health and health care in the United States, on the other, I propose closer attention to the potentially Janus-faced character of many health movement organizations and the ways in which they may look either inward or outward." . In school health and development, we have seen the same potential, as long as we all face outward and recognize each other's legitimacy and concerns. Read more >>(This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)
The articles in Issue #3, 2016 of Canadian Journal of School Psychology present a provincial/territorial snapshot of the practice of school psychology across Canada. The introduction notes that "Some provinces also report on the rise of a decentralized clinical administration where the provision of public sector health and social welfare services are increasingly linked to the education system, by recognizing that children are best served in their natural environments. Fundamentally, bridging the gap between “Education” and “Health” is an emerging theme in the present issue given that it represents the most challenging barrier to the implementation of prevention and early intervention programs. The “Global School Health Statement,” (a global dialogue promoted by ASCD, EI and ISHN) which for all intent and purposes, aims for the Integration of Health and Education and recognizes that schools have always “played an important role in promoting the health, safety, welfare, and social development of children.” Similarly, as suggested by Louise Bradley, the Mental Health Commission of Canada CEO, “in order to give today’s young people the best chance, we need to build a bridge—a bridge supported by an integrated, accessible and responsive system.” To date, there is little comprehensive mapping available in Canada of the amount of resources required for the implementation of mental health service provision in schools or of how they should be expended. Efforts to advance mental health in schools have been hampered by the existing gap between Health and Education. As such, by adhering to the “Global School Health Statement” guiding frameworks, school psychologists now seek to find innovative means to integrate health and social programs, which includes mental health, within the education system." Read more >> (This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)
Teaching has been recognized as a high stress job but few studies have examined the causes and potential solutions. An article in September 2016 Issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health uses " an adjusted Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model that considers the mediation of personal resources. the study examined the relationships between two characteristics of the work environment (emotional job demands and trust in colleagues) and two indicators of teachers’ well-being (teaching satisfaction and emotional exhaustion). In particular, the study focused on how emotion regulation strategies (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) mediate these relationships. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that: (1) the emotional job demands of teaching were detrimental to teacher well-being, whereas trust in colleagues was beneficial; (2) both emotion regulation strategies mediated the relationships between both emotional job demands and trust in colleagues and teacher well-being; and (3) teachers who tend to use more reappraisal may be psychologically healthier than those tend to adopt more suppression." The authors conclude that "that teachers should be seen as emotional workers, who need to be highly sensitive to the demands that their work makes on their emotions and well-being [61]. Given the high mean score of emotional job demands reported in this study, further attention should be paid to the adverse effects of the emotional demands faced by teachers." As well, they argue that "trust in colleagues is positively related to teaching satisfaction and less emotional exhaustion via the indirect effect of, respectively, reappraisal or suppression." Other studies of the work lives of teachers report that teaching is a lonely occupation and that it is difficult for teachers to work closely with colleagues due to lack of planning time in their work day. Read more >> (This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)
How Education for Sustainable Development Contributes to High Quality Education & Learning10/11/2016 An article in the special September 2016 issue of the Journal for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) describes how ESD learning contributes to a higher quality of education and learning for students. "This research is a synthesis of studies carried out in 18 countries to identify contributions of education for sustainable development (ESD) to quality education. he analysis revealed that major themes repeated across the 18 studies, showing that ESD contributes in many ways to quality education in primary and secondary schools. Teaching and learning transforms in all contexts when the curriculum includes sustainability content, and ESD pedagogies promote the learning of skills, perspectives and values necessary to foster sustainable societies. " The article also identified the need for better work in integrating ESD across the curriculum and in training teachers. Read more>> (This item is among the 5-10 highlights posted for ISHN members each week from the ISHN Member information service. Click on the web link to join this service and to support ISHN)
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