Browsing by Author "Kuoppala, Johanna"

Objectives. The aim of this study was to examine class teachers' opinions and experiences of teaching health education in primary school level. The main purpose was to explore what kind of significant experiences do teachers have of teaching health education, in which kinds of situations do they teach contents of health education, and do they appreciate health education as a school subject in primary school. The health of children and youth has gotten worse during the last decades. It provides food for thought about the importance of coherent health education even for young kids. Methods. The study involved six class teachers, men and women, aged between 26 and 55. They worked as class teachers in the metropolitan area or in the North of Finland. They all had taken university degree of education in a Finnish university. Three of them worked as teachers for second graders, three of them taught pupils at 5th or 6th grade. Research material was collected by interviewing the teachers with structured theme-interview in April-May 2016. After interviews the recordings was transcribed and analyzed using the methods of content analysis. Results and conclusions. The results show that the class teachers give health education mainly without consciously considering that as health education. For the most part, the interviewees didn't consider the contents as a health education except for when they taught contents of puberty and sexuality at grades five and six. Overall, health education as a school subject is experienced challenging because of its common essence. The conclusions are that teachers teach health education according to their own values of health and when the topics come up in the daily life. The teachers aren't conscious enough about the contents of curriculum of health education and aren't that sure about the role of health education as a school subject in primary school level.