Health education and interactive drama

Abstract

Objective: Within Canada, health education is generally taught by teachers who are subject generalists, or subject specialists within other disciplines, with little-to-no formal teacher training in health education. Without teacher training related to curriculum and instruction in health education, teachers are effectively required to adapt their developing pedagogies to unique health contexts. This article highlights findings from a recent study in which pre-service physical education (PE) teachers implemented interactive drama (ID) as a pedagogical practice to engage adolescent students (aged 13-16 years) in meaningful learning opportunities related to particular health education curricular outcomes. Design: The study was part of a Service Learning Project (SLP) within a secondary physical education curriculum and instruction course at Atlantic Canada University. 1 During the SLP, pre-service PE teachers (n = 21) engaged adolescent students (n = 162) in ID presentations and discussions. After completion of the SLP, pre-service PE teachers shared their perspectives of ID as a pedagogical practice capable of meaningfully engaging themselves and their students within health education. Setting: Atlantic Canada University has a population of approximately 5,000 students, the majority of whom come from Atlantic and Eastern Canada. The SLP occurred at Melmerby School, 2 a P-12 school with a student population of approximately 500 students. Method: Applying case study methodology, the researchers examined pre-service PE teachers' written responses to a post-SLP survey. These data were collected so as to gain an in-depth understanding of ID as a perceived appropriate pedagogical practice for health education. Results: Three primary themes were identified through the data analysis. These were: enabling teachers; engaging students; and real-life connections. Conclusion: ID can be a beneficial pedagogical practice for health education; it has the potential to benefit both pre-service PE teachers and their adolescent students.

Social, Personal, and Innovative Competencies Effect of Service-Learning in Physical Education Teacher Education: A Mixed-Methods Analysis

“…That improvement has been described in previous work in relation to different views of commitment: community, civic, academic, and social (Furco and Root, 2010;Celio et al, 2011;Capella-Peris et al, 2020b). Likewise, there is also precedent for the stimulation of this feature in PE (Robinson and Meyer, 2012).…”

“…Moreover, the qualitative evidence shows how the PETEs increased both their personal and professional confidence, specifically in relation to handling functionally diverse populations and teaching sessions of PE. Altogether, the data points to a huge enhancement of the PETEs' confidence during the study (Miller, 2012;Robinson and Meyer, 2012).…”

Innovative Analysis of Service-Learning Effects in Physical Education: A Mixed-Methods Approach

“…The game presentation and rule compliance results agree in highlighting the description of activities as the best aspect, pointing to a greater fluency and efficacy in explaining tasks (Massey-Stokes & Meaney, 2006;Meaney et al, 2008;Miller, 2012). The qualitative analysis showed remarkable progress in the implementation of the rules (Himelein, Passman, & Phillips, 2010) and the management of the children's behavior (Domangue & Carson, 2008;Meaney et al, 2009;Robinson & Meyer, 2012), focusing on the improvement of rules understanding and control of compliance rules. In addition, an appropriate development in applying the standards and protocols of PE was also highlighted (LaMaster, 2001).…”

“…First, the experience provided "in the field" is highlighted. This represents one of the leading effects of SL, allowing investigators to apply action research and reflection processes in real teaching contexts (Baldwin et al, 2007;Bishop & Driver, 2007;Robinson & Meyer, 2012). In addition, using new teaching strategies, interacting with the children's parents, applying new proposals, and practicing in different contexts also resulted in outstanding learning outcomes for PTs (Domangue & Carson, 2008;Massey-Stokes & Meaney, 2006).…”

Factors facilitating and constraining the delivery of effective teacher training to promote health and well-being in schools: a survey of current practice and systematic review

“…Only two of the 14 papers meeting the inclusion criteria evaluated the training of pre-service teachers (Riggs et al 222 and Robinson et al 223 ) and would therefore be relevant for the in-depth synthesis (meeting the inclusion criteria reported in Chapter 6 of this report), increasing the total number of studies to 22. It is unlikely that inclusion of these two studies would significantly alter the findings of the review.…”