Health education at schools in lebenon. Critical analyses of curriculum, textbooks, focus groups and classroom sequences in lebanese public school and palestinian school

النوع : Thèse

My research focused on a critical analysis of health education in Lebanon according to the World Health Organization recent definitions of “comprehensive health education curriculum”. Two schools were selected in the same area, a Lebanese public school and a Palestinian school, to test the hypothesis of possible differences between them, linked to eventual differences in their students’ health situations. The research also identified the students’ arguments based on affective and social dimensions as well as knowledge when discussing some health topics (such as smoking and nutrition), and whether these arguments are considered in the curriculum, textbooks, and in the analyzed sequences of teaching. This descriptive collective case study used different complementary methods to analyze: the Lebanese national curriculum, syllabi of disciplines, national textbooks, three classroom observations in each school for two health topics: nutrition in grade 4 (English) and grade 5 (science) and tobacco smoking in grade 6 (science), besides two focus group discussions in each school for eight students in grade 5 discussing nutrition, and eight students in grade 6 discussing tobacco smoking. Five different grids were established according to the set criteria to collect data. The results were recorded in tables and then commented upon. The results indicated that the learning objectives, health lessons, and teaching sequences emphasized physical health, while the mental, emotional and social dimensions of health were neglected. In addition, knowledge rather than attitudes, skills, and practices was emphasized. Health lessons and teaching sequences poorly addressed social pressures and influences, skills that build personal competence, social competence and self efficacy. Teachers used strategies that do not engage students. Health lessons and the teaching sequences were directed toward disease prevention more than health promotion, and ignored the focus on personal perception of risk. However, gender equity was considered. The students’ arguments also revealed the need to stress the items mentioned above in the textbooks and in the teaching sequences. The thesis concluded the need to adapt the current Lebanese curriculum and national textbooks to produce a separate health education syllabus according to the WHO definition of comprehensive health education and to include interactive teaching methods and life skills in all teacher training courses.