In this series of activities you will explore the Characteristics of Effective Health Education Curriculum through short activities that examine examples of these characteristics and in some cases, identify not so effective practices that you should avoid.
Exploring Characteristics 5-9
5. Addresses social pressures and influences
Curricula provide opportunities for students to deal with relevant personal and social pressures that influence risky behaviors, such as the influence of the media, peer pressure, and social barriers. For examples of this characteristic.
6. Builds Personal Competence, Social Competence, and Self-Efficacy by Addressing Skills
Curricula build essential skills, including communication, refusal, assessing accuracy of information, decision-making, planning and goal setting, self-control and self management, that enable students to build personal confidence and ability to deal with social pressures and avoid or reduce risk-taking behaviors. For each skill, students are guided through a series of developmental steps:
1. Discussing the importance of the skill, its relevance, and its relationship to other learned skills
2. Presenting steps for developing the skill
3. Modeling the skill
4. Practicing and rehearsing the skill by using real-life scenarios
5. Providing feedback and reinforcement
7. Provides functional health knowledge that is basic, accurate, and directly contributes to health-promoting decisions and behaviors
Curricula provide accurate, reliable, and credible information for a usable purpose: so students can assess risk, correct misperceptions about social norms, identify ways to avoid or minimize risky situations, examine internal and external influences, make behaviorally relevant decisions, and build personal and social competence. A curriculum that relies exclusively or primarily on disseminating information for the sole purpose of improving knowledge is inadequate and incomplete. For examples of this characteristic
8. Uses strategies designed to personalize information and engage students
Instructional strategies and learning experiences are student centered, interactive, and experiential. The strategies include group discussions, cooperative learning, problem solving, role playing, and peer-led activities. Learning experiences correspond with students’ cognitive and emotional development and help them personalize information and maintain their interest and motivation while accommodating diverse capabilities and learning styles. Instructional strategies and learning experiences include methods for the following:
1. Addressing key health-related concepts
2. Encouraging creative expression
3. Sharing personal thoughts, feelings, and opinions
4. Developing critical thinking skills
9. Provides age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate information, learning strategies, teaching methods, and materials
Curricula address students’ needs, interests, concerns, developmental and emotional maturity, and current knowledge and skills. Learning should be relevant and applicable to students’ daily lives. For examples of this characteristic.
Answer the questions below regarding effective practices for these characteristics.