Lori gets school health… because she has taught it!” as noted by a participant in one of Lori’s trainings
In 2024, School Health Education (SHE) courses are NOT supposed to be taught in the same manner of how classes were taught years ago in the PreK-12 school setting. Instead, Health Education courses need to be taught in a student-centered and skill-based manner, as noted by the National Health Education Standards.
Click here to learn how Lori can strengthen your health education program!
Why is Health Education instruction so important for PreK-12 graders?
Health education is about our everyday lives.
Because it is about our daily lives, Health Education is one of two school subject areas supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the other subject is physical education). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the well-known health protection agency of the United States.
The National Health Education Standards support skill-based instruction. These standards include:
- Analyzing the variety of influences impacting wellness (Standard 2)
- Accessing reliable information (Standard 3)
- Effective communication (Standard 4)
- Healthy decision making in which specific steps are followed (Standard 5)
- SMART goal setting which is applied to all areas of health, not just nutrition and physical activity (Standard 6)
- Positive self-management skills (Standard 7)
- Effective advocacy to support all people’s wellness (Standard 8)
- Age and developmentally appropriate functional knowledge (Standard 1)
What are recommended “best practices” for Health Teachers in the PreK-12 setting?
The recommended method for teaching standard-based health education includes student-centered instruction in which children and youth practice life skills by following simple steps applicable to real life situations.
To do this, each skill (standards 2 – 8) is broken down into small steps for students to understand what goes into each skill. Students then practice the skill’s steps while receiving feedback to reinforce proper skill development. Health teachers also model these skills and ensure students understand the importance of each skill.
In other words, skill-based instruction requires more than one or two lessons of life skills spread out over a few weeks or semester. Skill-based instruction requires a well-structured plan allowing students time to practice each skill in depth. And by creating this plan through a backwards-design method, the wellness of all students is supported!
Why don’t some schools teach skill-based health education or have very limited skill instruction overall?
Unfortunately, some people do not understand the importance of updated Health Education instruction. And some think that health education is taught in the manner that they were taught – with teacher-centered lessons and scare tactics. Like how things are shown in the classic video clip:
“If you have sex, you will die,” shown in the movie “Means Girls”:
Yet the use of scare tactics and “Just say ‘no’” campaigns are not proven best practices in health education. The reality is that there are a lot of factors that go into why youth partake in substance use and sexual activities, as well as other risky health decisions. And, because of these factors, a comprehensive school health education curriculum is needed.
This comprehensive Health Education curriculum is recommended to be standard-based (skill-based) supporting the teaching of life skills. Teaching in this way ensures the best decision making occurs to the variety of life situations children and youth make.
Do children and youth learn any health information/facts or is it all skill-based?
“Best practices” in Health Education includes children and youth learning functional health knowledge that is infused into skill-based lessons. Functional health knowledge refers to age-and developmentally-appropriate information that is truly needed for children and youth to understand general health education facts.
For example, instead of children and youth attempting to remember all the different facts about substances, including the numerous drugs that exist and how these drugs impact a human being’s body, they are taught where they can find updated information on substances (to access reliable resources), how to best make decisions about drug use with usable facts, and how to refuse an offer of a substance.
What is currently being done in the United States to ensure all health education classes are standard-based?
There are many health educators and administrators throughout the country working to support future and current school health educators in standard-based School Health Education instruction.
These health educators work in a variety of ways, including collaboratively through national organizations. Some examples are:
- The Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE; formerly called AAHPERD): SHAPE supports PreK-12 grade health and physical educators in remaining updated with standard-based instruction. In addition to being a national organization, many states and regions in the country have additional resources and conferences aligning with National SHAPE.
- The Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE): Recently SOPHE successfully created/strengthened health education teacher preparation standards that are recognized by the Council on Accreditation in Educator Preparation (CAEP). More information on these teacher preparation standards is found at 2019 Health Education Teacher Preparation Standards.
- The American School Health Association (ASHA): ASHA works to ensure schools are coordinated to support the Whole Child. This coordination includes working with a variety of people within the local school district as well as community support systems.
How can Lori help your health education classroom and curricula?
Lori has years of PreK-12 grade teaching experience, including planning and assessing standard-based learning. Due to her expertise, she has successfully worked with districts and state educational agencies to create comprehensive standard-based curricula. Click here for more information on some of Lori’s past consulting services.
Does Lori remain updated?
YES! Lori continues to ensure she is aware of current best practices. For example, she is one of few school health educators with extensive experience teaching about Erin’s Law and has taught numerous self-management skills dealing with today’s topics, like Mindfulness and basic Hygienic Skills. She also stays aware of current trends and teaching skills, including Mindfulness practice and Online Instructional Strategies.
Click here to learn how Lori can strengthen your health education program!