(An item from the ISHN Member information service) The school health movement has focused on transforming schools through "whole school" strategies. As proponents, we would learn much from reading Issue #2, 2013 of Improving Schools, where the concept of "schoolwide pedagogies" is discussed in a special issue. There are several articles but this quote from the concluding article is quite revealing. "The term schoolwide pedagogy was once rarely heard and yet has now become a part of most discussions around school improvement. But what does it really mean and why is the presence of a schoolwide pedagogical framework important? Some would say that in their school the adoption of an authoritative approach such as Habits of Mind, Bloom’s Taxonomies or the Productive Pedagogies is a schoolwide pedagogical framework. To some extent they are, but what is often lacking is the intellectual and social capacity that is built through collective professional sharing and articulation of strongly held beliefs about contextually relevant teaching and learning practices. Without this sense of ownership, teacher adoption ends up being sporadic at best with some teachers paying only lip service to imposed quality frameworks". If this is the case for matters at the heart of the school (ie how to teach), then what can we expect for matters such as health, which are often seen as secondary? (unless we truly understand and commit to working within schools in a sustained manner) Read more>>
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(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #1, 2013 of the International Journal of Education Development uses the \\'Capability Approach\', developed by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, as well as a realist review to assess and explain the quality of teacher practices in Tanzania. The authors suggest that the apparent gap between perceptions (teachers are nor performing well enough vs the teachers don't have enough resources) The authors conclude that " By unpacking these components of teachers’ behaviours, and understanding the underlying structures, mechanisms, tendencies and counter-tendencies that produce certain empirically apprehended actions, we can start to see entry points in which measures to improve teachers’ professional performance could be seeded. First, interventions should acknowledge teachers’ causal mechanisms because these are the valued beings and doings that are central to the lives that teachers want to lead; if interventions could aid in the achievement of these functionings, they would also aid in the reduction of some ‘deficient’ behaviours that are associated with their constraint. Secondly, interventions need to account for and address dominant counter-tendencies (or constraining conversion factors) that teachers face, as this will ground strategies in context, provide pragmatic solutions, and convince teachers that these measures are worth trying. Without acknowledgement of causal mechanisms or counter-tendencies, it is highly likely that technocratic fixes that attempt to alter certain criticised practices will not be sustained, as teachers will revert to old ways. The reason being, these criticised ‘old ways’ are grounded in the valued functionings and conversion factors that consistently generate much of teachers’ behaviour." Read more>>
(An item from ISHN Member information service) There has been an increasing number of research articles published recently that are describing the perceptions of teachers. These studies help us to understand the concerns, professional norms, normative and sociological factors that will determine how teachers approach various health, social and environmental issues in their classrooms. An article in Issue #5, 2012 of Environmental Education Research is an example of this trend. The study examined the perceptions or pre-service teachers of using outdoor settings as a learning environment. The researchers report that "Based on the results of 110 participants, this study suggests preservice early childhood educators perceive parks as the most conducive outdoor setting for achieving educational outcomes, specifically structured learning about nature, and that they are more inclined to use maintained outdoor settings than natural outdoor settings. The strongest predictors of intention to use natural outdoor settings were perceived difficulty in using natural settings, participants’ level of nature relatedness, and the degree to which they agreed that experiences in nature were important for young children’s health and wellness. Barriers to address include perceived lack of access to natural settings and safety concerns. Read more.
(An item from ISHN Member information service) Several articles in Issue #8, 2012 of Teaching & Teacher Education continue that journal's tradition of describing teachers, student teachers and their norms, beliefs and practices. These offer excellent insights for advocates of health and social development programs in schools. Read more.
(Posted from the ISHN information service for its members)The articles in a new journal, the Health Education Teaching Techniques Journal, provide a unique resource for teachers. Each issue of the journal presents research-based lesson plans that include the relevant activities and support materials as well as an explanation of the theory or behavioral basis for the lesson plan. Here is a list of the lessons that are explained in Issue #2, 2012: (1) Alcohol Prevention Letters: Creating a Circle of Support, (2) Let’s Talk about G-E-R-M-S: Educating Elementary School Students about Germs and Hand Sanitation |(3) Making Decisions: Paired-Comparison Analysis (4) Exploring the Challenges of HIV: Developing Compassionate Attitudes through Role Play (5) When Friends Self-Mutilate (6) Teaching Food Safety. Read more.
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