The art & science of student assessment is often an overlooked element of Health, Personal & Social Development education. Generally, we compete with the traditional demand for students marks in academic subjects with a call for more holistic assessment practices but we rarely examine what we are suggesting students learn beyond the basic facts (literacy) of health. Issue #31, 2019 of ASCD Express gives us some insights as it covers the debate within education about moving to student evaluation without grades and marks. The articles in this issue suggest that "High-quality feedback should describe work against criteria students themselves understand and suggest attainable next steps at the appropriate level of challenge, points and averages mask what students actually know and are able to do, a straightforward reporting system gives students the information to take ownership of learning by measuring their performance relative to defined standards and making mastery, not points, the reward for your students...." Read more...
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A study of Ebola knowledge, perceived risk, community and cultural factors reported in Issue #3, 2018 of International Health helps us to understand how knowledge may be a threshold condition for adopting preventive behaviours. However, the study also notes how other factors such as perceived risk, community norms and religious beliefs also affect those behaviours. Using data collected from 800 respondents in 40 randomly selected communities in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, this study employed hierarchical linear modelling. "Respondents with greater knowledge about Ebola were more likely to engage in Ebola-preventive behaviours. Compared with Christians, Muslims were significantly less likely to engage in Ebola-preventive behaviours.Communities expressing worry about a potential Ebola outbreak were more likely to engage in Ebola-preventive behaviours. In addition, there were significant changes in risk perception from the time the disease had peaked in neighbouring countries to the time data were collected. Most importantly, respondents who perceived themselves to have a high risk of contracting Ebola at the time of the survey were significantly less likely to engage in Ebola-preventive behaviours." 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) General definitions and discussions about health literacy are well underway in the research and practitioner publications. As ISHN and other members of the global school health community embark on a project to delineate the school role in promoting HL, it is important to understand some key concepts. Media literacy is one of these aspects. An article in the October 2016 issue of the Journal of School Health describes how media literacy related to smoking is needed. "Susceptibility to future smoking, positive beliefs about smoking, and perceptions of antismoking norms are all factors that are associated with future smoking. In previous research, smoking media literacy (SML) has been associated with these variables, even when controlling for other known risk factors for smoking. However, these studies were performed with older teenagers, often in high school, not younger teens at a crucial developmental point with respect to the decision to begin smoking. This study uses survey data collected from 656 American public middle school students representing multiple zip codes, schools, and school districts. Results: Smoking media literacy levels for middle school students were similar to those of high school students in earlier studies. Higher SML levels were associated with lower susceptibility to future smoking and predicted susceptibility to smoke when controlling for other risk factors. This suggests that the same relationships found with teenagers may exist with middle school students." 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 article in Supplementary Issue #1, 2016 of Journal of Health Communication on health literacy discusses the connection between health literacy and the use of health care services. Most studies on this connection have focused on health insurance and less on the other barriers to use of care services. Most studies in HL have also been focused on existing patients (i.e. those that are already "in the door" of the physician's office and whether they can follow medical advice. The article shifts our attention to the barriers for individuals to get "to the door". It discusses non-financial barriers such as lack of time, travel etc. The article prompts some thoughts about the unique opportunity to examine this "getting to the door" aspect of HL through the school setting. Most health education curricula include learning objectives related to know about and how to use local health services. Some studies ask about child/youth regular visits to their doctor as a behavioural output. Another dimension to this improved access discussion related to HL could include comparisons between schools that have clinics on the premises and those that do not. A variation of this could be whether students actually visit local clinics as part of their health education program. Parental involvement and education could also be added as a consideration or support for the classroom instruction about services. Studies could also look at the impact of instruction/support for instruction on the use of preventive care among young adults immediately after high school. As we develop a more specific and deeper understanding of how health education curricula and programs in schools can promote basic health literacy, we should consider how various supports to the classroom learning related to health care services use can be coordinated, studied and monitored. 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) Supplementary Issue #2, 2015 of Journal of Health Communication provides a Special Issue examination of Current Perspectives in Health Literacy Research. This journal has been and will be publishing similar issues on HL in 2016. Most of the articles in this issue do not relate directly to school-aged children and youth. But the issue does illustrate a predominant trend in HL research and practice, a trend that also dominates health promotion generally. Most of the articles in this issue discuss the impact of basic health literacy (knowledge, skills, critical thinking etc.) in relation to one health topic. Associations are identified (or disproved) between the basic health literacy of the patients about that particular topic. Some of the articles identify correlations between that basic HL about an issue and health behaviours or health outcomes on that topic. The implications for developing a health education curriculum if one uses this topic-by-topic approach are clear....there will likely be far too much to cover in one mandatory curriculum. Unless we can select the topics that are critical to an age group and given context, then define the absolute minimum number of essential facts/knowledge/insights about these health topics while sequentially building the generic skills, attitudes and beliefs that critical to HL, the task of preparing a proper scope, sequence and content for a health education curriculum in a country will be almost impossible. 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) (From the ISHN Member information service) Home Economics classes, a part of many comprehensive approaches to school health and development (along with Health Ed & Phys Ed) have largely disappeared from the mandatory curricula of many countries, provinces and states in the last decade. It is ironic to note the recent report of the OECD on financial literacy among students, which is now part of their PISA evaluation program. This is the first international study to assess the financial literacy of young people. Around 30,000 students from 18 countries and economies* took the tests, which involved dealing with bank accounts and credit/debit cards, planning and managing finances, understanding taxes and savings, risk and rewards, consumer rights and responsibilities in financial contracts. One of the OECD summaries asked if 15 year olds know how to manage money. They summarized the results as follows: "On average 10% of students can analyse complex financial products and solve non-routine financial problems, while 15% can, at best, make simple decisions about everyday spending, and recognise the purpose of everyday financial documents, such as an invoice. " And we wonder why this generation of adults in so many countries have over-extended themselves with credit card debt, mortgages and over-spending? Read more>>
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