Chapter V: Health Education

Abstract

Health education research during the period 1962-68 dealt with both the content and the process of health education. If it can be said that there was a discernible trend with regard to this research, it would be in the direction of increased research activity within specific content areas of the larger field of health education. The focus of health education research studies is becoming better defined, if more specialized.Educational methods and techniques in health instruction continued to receive considerable attention in the form of comparative effectiveness studies. Measurement of the achievement of health education objectives also remained at a high level. In this regard, the realization of broad program goals and pupil progress were studied. National ProjectsThe largest project in the field of school health education over the past six years would have to be the School Health Education Study (hereafter referred to as the SHE Study) which was begun in September 1961 in an effort to improve health instruction programs in schools. Sliepcevich (1966) has identified the work of the first phase of the study as falling into five major areas: (a) publication of a monograph summarizing research related to instruction (Veenker, 1963) ; (b) a nationwide status study by Sliepcevich (1964) of selected large, medium, and small schools to determine health instruction program practices; (c) a survey of students' behavior in grades 6, 9, and 12; (d) development of a conceptual framework for the health education curriculum for K-12 and preparation of appropriate instructional materials; and (e) testing of the early experimental curriculum materials in four school tryout centers. Creswell, Hastings, and Huffman (1966) reported on the evaluation of the early teaching-learning guides of the SHE Study as they were applied at those tryout locations in the spring of 1965. They stated that the concept approach used in the development of the guides did reveal relationships among ideas which would help the student make generalizations and broader applications of his health knowledge.The SHE Study listed health as a comprehensive, generalized concept having three dimensions-physical, mental, and social. Three key concepts served as unifying threads of the curriculum: growing and developing, interacting, and decision making. The conceptual framework is characterized by adaptability, flexibility, and permanence. 512at OAKLAND UNIV on June 1, 2015 http://rer.aera.net Downloaded from