Trends in coverage of hygiene and disease prevention topics across national curriculum frameworks for primary science, physical education, and health

Abstract

The response to the Covid-19 pandemic raises a question about the role of national curriculum frameworks in acquiring and applying knowledge about hygiene and prevention of disease. For curriculum designers, this means determining what children of different ages should learn about these topics and how they should develop and apply this knowledge. Curriculum designers must do so amid trends towards reducing curriculum content and transitioning to competency-based curricula with transversal elements. Arguments can be made for placing health literacy competences, knowledge, and skills across the intended curriculum for science, physical education, and health. These are different disciplines with different models of knowledge, learning, and progression. This exploratory study looks at the placement of public health-related content in a selection of recently reformed, competency-based national curriculum frameworks from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Australasia. From these examples, it highlights risks and opportunities for incorporating public health messages into the intended curriculum.

Science Maps and Bibliometric Analysis on Hygiene Education During 2012-2021

“…In this case, there is debate about whether the hygiene education curriculum should stand alone (Birch et al, 2019) or be integrated into the science curriculum (Arnold, 2018;Zeyer, 2012). Hygiene and health education have come to the forefront, especially after the COVID -19 epidemic (Lounis, 2020;Čavojová et al, 2022;Morrish & Neesam, 2021).…”

“…Oral or dental hygiene education is about learning oral health behaviors that help prevent oral health impairment (Mueller et al, 2022). Hygiene education is a multidisciplinary field of study (V. Curtis et al, 2003) that is closely related to health (Huang et al, 2019), health education (Jatmika & Maulana, 2018), and science education (Eley et al, 2020;Morrish & Neesam, 2021) in education. The material in the hygiene education curriculum is integrated into science education curricula, particularly at the elementary and secondary school levels (Morrish & Neesam, 2021).…”

“…Hygiene education is a multidisciplinary field of study (V. Curtis et al, 2003) that is closely related to health (Huang et al, 2019), health education (Jatmika & Maulana, 2018), and science education (Eley et al, 2020;Morrish & Neesam, 2021) in education. The material in the hygiene education curriculum is integrated into science education curricula, particularly at the elementary and secondary school levels (Morrish & Neesam, 2021). Even when considered in this context, hygiene education is closely related to science education.…”

Main characteristics of preventive postural hygiene training programs in the educational field

“…With regard to the promotion of healthy habits, the area of Physical Education plays a leading role in the education of students (Morrish and Neesam, 2021;Amado-Merchán, 2020;Mata-Bazán and Campos-Cornejo, 2018). Authors such as Morrish and Neesam (2021) recommend promoting the interdisciplinary treatment of health together with the rest of the areas, so that such learning is as meaningful as possible and lasts into adulthood (Ghobadi et al, 2018;Mata-Bazán and Campos-Cornejo, 2018).…”

L’éducation physique en temps de pandémie : quelles leçons en tirer pour le « monde d’après » ?

“…Dans une revue de littérature internationale, Forest et al ont ainsi identifié quatre traditions d'enseignement de l'EP largement répandues dans les pays occidentaux : l'enseignement de l'EP comme (a) enseignement de techniques sportives ; (b) éducation à la santé ; (c) éducation aux valeurs et à la citoyenneté ; et (d) éducation à la culture physique et sportive. Parmi celles-ci, la tradition d'enseignement de l'EP comme éducation à la santé s'est progressivement imposée dans les discours et les pratiques de nombreux pays et régions 2 (Bezeau et al, 2020 ;Brown & Whittle, 2021 ;Forest et al, 2018 ;Larsen et al, 2020 ;Morrish & Neesam, 2021), non sans avoir fait l'objet de critiques portant sur la faible valeur éducative des pratiques de bienêtre et d'entretien qui intègrent les curriculums sous son influence, sur la normalisation des comportements en matière d'éducation à la santé et sur le déplacement des frontières entre l'éducation scolaire, familiale et communautaire (Marsault, 2015 ;Poggi et al, 2009 ;Quennerstedt, 2008 ;Webb et al, 2008). Cette tradition suscite également des craintes quant à la possible résurgence d'une vieille tendance hygiéniste de l'EP (Defrance & El Boujjoufi, 2013 ;Marsault, 2015).…”