Trends of overweight and its associated risk factors among adolescent students in Bekaa, Lebanon and case study of the implementation of the Problem-Based Learning Approach in the high school biology classroom

النوع : Mémoire

Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to health risks, among which is obesity. Obesity during adolescence has been associated with some chronic diseases in adulthood, Available literature and statistics demonstrate a rising prevalence of overweight and obesity among Arab adolescents, with a range of 14% to 44%. The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence of perceived overweight and its associated risk factors among adolescent school students in the Bekaa Governate. Our findings indicate the necessity to establish awareness programs targeting multiple health behaviors among youth and treating overweight. Even though the participating adolescents’ nutritional knowledge was statistically proven as “average”, the researcher decided to choose an innovative pedagogical method focusing on a nutrition unit as a part of an awareness program that should follow such survey. In a separate case study, an intervention was performed on a third secondary biology class; the researcher investigated problem-based lessons. These lessons were different from previous lessons taught by the researcher which were more direct instruction where the students were given the information and then they would use that information to complete exercises. Overall, it was discovered that students liked biology class more after the use of problem-based learning. However, it was also discovered that problem-based lessons were time consuming for the teacher and did not provide any improvement in student achievement. On the personal level, the researcher enjoyed teaching more because of the projects, and seeing the students enjoy working as groups and coming up with answers was rewarding.