Best Practices

In the history of health education, many instructional strategies have been tried, with varying degrees of success. In the 1970's health curricula focused on giving students health information in hope that the more knowledge students had about health issues the better their decisions would be. Assumption was that people behaved out of ignorance and given accurate information, their health behavior would be consistent with the information. Health educators then began to use fear arousal and scare tactics as part of the information students received. However, these messages were little more than an emotional appeal making a prediction of dire consequences. People often "test" the prediction to see if the predictions will occur. When they don't, the credibility of the teacher is questioned. Research shows that scare tactics and fear arousal had, at best, a short term effect.

In the mid 70's Values Clarification was introduced. The belief was that if young people could understand and articulate their values, they would recognize the potential destructiveness of engaging in high risk behaviors. This assumes that a protective shield of enhanced self-esteem will prevent individuals from engaging in health compromising behaviors. However, receiving self esteem lessons is not a significant indicator of whether a desirable health behavior will occur. Curricula then started to use an Alternatives Approach with the belief that for any reason one has for engaging in a high risk behavior, a safer alternative is available to satisfy that reason. The field of health education has now created an emphasis on teaching students how to apply the knowledge learned in the classroom to decisions they are required to make every day. Each approach described above has proven to be ineffective if used alone. Therefore, using comprehensive programs based on effective theories may bring us closer to our goal of creating healthier students.

In an effort to improve the quality of health education and curricula, certain educational groups have gathered panels of experts to analyze existing programs. The groups differ in the focus of the curricula they examined and the specific criteria used to judge the effectiveness. However, several criteria for successful programs were repeatedly mentioned. Almost every list of key elements for successful curricula stated that the program needs to be comprehensive, including family and community and examining the influence of peers and the media. Along with this approach, curricula should include a variety of teaching methods to reach a diverse range of learners and to keep students actively involved. The information should deal with social norms and pressures in order for students to better personalize the lesson and feel a sense of vulnerability. The focus needs to be more on teaching students functional skills dealing directly with the goal at hand than teaching only knowledge. The cognitive aspect should be minimal in comparison to the practice students receive performing necessary and meaningful skills. Also, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office (1995), a health education curriculum should start early in students' lives and last multiple years. Sufficient follow-up and troubleshooting should occur along the way. When choosing a program, look for curricula that has been tested and proven to change behaviors over a long period of time.

Most of the programs reviewed focus on violence and substance abuse prevention. Others focus on effectively reducing sexual risk behaviors that contribute to HIV and other STD infections and unintended pregnancy and tobacco-use behavior. Visit the links below to find information about each of the reviewed programs and the process used during review.

The United States Education Department and the Expert Panel on Safe, Disciplined and Drug-Free Schools have identified nine exemplary and thirty-three promising programs.
link: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SDFS/programs.html

Sharing Success is the New York State Education Department's statewide system for identifying and disseminating successful educational programs and practices. Sharing Success can coordinate the replication of multiple validated programs and promising practices to address whole school reform efforts.
link: http://www.sharingsuccess.org

The Resource Center for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention presents Programs That Work as curricula that have shown evidence of changing adolescent sexual risk-taking behavior. You'll find information here that can lead you to promising curricula that might "fit" your population.
link: http://www.etr.org/recapp/programs/index.htm

Program Archives represent a new Sociometrics thrust aimed at assembling in one place-for public dissemination, distribution, and replication-outstanding prevention programs in key health areas.
link: http://www.socio.com/program.htm

The National Diabetes Education Program has released a new publication titled, “Helping the Student with Diabetes Succeed: A Guide for School Personnel.” This new guide is part of the Diabetes in School Initiative, which has been jointly sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The purpose of this guide is to provide a set of practices for schools to most effectively help students manage their disease in a safe learning environment. Diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases in school-aged children, affecting about 206,000 young people in 2002.

Additional copies may be downloaded from the National Diabetes Education Program website or can be ordered by calling 1-800-438-5383