A “Light Bulb Moment” in Understanding Public Health for Undergraduate Students: Evaluation of the Experiential “This Is Public Health” Photo Essay Task

Abstract

A lack of understanding of the importance of public health both within the community and in the tertiary education setting is a significant impediment to improvement in population health. The international campaign “This is Public Health” (TIPH) has been promoted widely as a strategy to increase community awareness and attract and inspire the next generation of public health professionals. This paper describes and evaluates student perceptions of a TIPH photo essay and reflective task in order to explore the pedagogical and learning outcomes related to undergraduate students’ public health knowledge. The aim of the analysis was to understand (1) if the task led to increased awareness of public health, and if so, the process of how an understanding of public health develops, and (2) how the interactive nature of the experiential TIPH task leads to depth of understanding.MethodsThis study was undertaken at the University of Newcastle (UON), NSW, Australia. A qualitative study design using a descriptive case study methodology was employed. One-hundred and thirty-nine undergraduate students taking part in a semester-long, introductory public health course provided informed consent and completed a TIPH photo essay and reflective task as a compulsory assessment. Analysis of the student reflections was performed using a general inductive approach to qualitative thematic analysis.Results and discussionAnalysis of the reflections indicated that completion of the photo essay and reflective task revealed two strong thematic clusters each with a number of subthemes. The most important findings were the six strong data clusters around students’ new and deeper understanding of Public Health. Additionally, four separate data clusters around the pedagogy of the task were revealed. The task also impacted beyond knowledge improvement and academic performance. Students alluded to an increased appreciation of their own health, a new recognition of the importance of preventative health measures, and an improved analytical awareness of health determinants and the measures in place to protect health.ConclusionThe TIPH photo essay and reflective task was successful in providing undergraduate students with an experiential activity that resulted in increased knowledge and understanding of public health strategies. The task was a valuable pedagogical experience.

Adaptability, Interdisciplinarity, Engageability: Critical Reflections on Green Social Work Teaching and Training

“…Critical reflection is an essential pedagogical tool, promoting students’ understanding and their in-situ practice in social work education and training in particular [ 5 , 56 ] and in health-related disciplines (e.g., nursing, medicine, and public health) in general [ 57 , 58 , 59 ]. Critical reflection also features a research method, connecting theory to practice with discursive depth [ 60 ].…”

A Systematic Review of the Outcomes, Level, Facilitators, and Barriers to Deep Self-Reflection in Public Health Higher Education: Meta-Analysis and Meta-Synthesis

“…After reading the remaining 68 articles, 14 were not relevant to selfreflection, 11 did not include evaluation results, five did not meet the target population criteria, and we were unable to isolate the results of undergraduate from the graduate population in four studies. The remaining 34 studies were included in our systematic review (Schaffer et al, 2005;Champagne, 2006;Brondani, 2010;Carroll and Mccarthy, 2010;Shepherd, 2010;Lee et al, 2011;Solomon and Risdon, 2011;Leipert and Anderson, 2012;Fortugno et al, 2013;Sendall and Domocol, 2013;Koh et al, 2014;Lencucha, 2014;Oakes and Sheehan, 2014;Stefaniak and Lucia, 2014;Hoffman and Silverberg, 2015;Karlsen et al, 2015;Krumwiede et al, 2015;McKay and Dunn, 2015;Babenko-Mould et al, 2016;Olson and Burns, 2016;Dundas et al, 2017;Padykula, 2017;Rooks and Holliman, 2018;Adams, 2019;Burnett and Akerson, 2019;Harver et al, 2019;Janssen Breen et al, 2019;Njoku and Ferris State University, 2019;Andina-Díaz, 2020;Chang and Chen, 2020;Harrison et al, 2020;Sambell et al, 2020;Suwanbamrung and Kaewsawat, 2020;Haffejee, 2021). Of the 34 studies, 29 reported qualitative evaluation results, and five reported mixed methods evaluation results.…”

“…I felt like a professional." (photovoice, Dundas et al, 2017), and "These experiences improved my cultural competency, cross-cultural communication, ability to navigate ambiguous situations, and creativity regarding health communication materials. My experiences only reconfirmed for me that I want to continue working with diverse and vulnerable populations."…”

Naming racism in the public health classroom

“…On many campuses of PWI, large scale racist events have led to student organizing and protests mobilizing for increased engagement by campus administrators to address issues of racism, with a specific interest in how faculty address these dynamics in their instruction [ 29 ]. The movement to increase our understanding of people of color’s experiences within socially hostile environments and their resultant disparities within health is one way that students of color may better relate to material within public health classrooms [ 30 , 31 ]. Undergraduate students who come into contact with public health classes may feel that these classes attend to issues and address societal and structural issues in a way that other classes may not [ 32 , 33 ].…”