Browsing by Author "Mäkelä, Aino-Maria"

Objectives. The aim of this study is to find out how class teachers implement health educa-tion in Primary School. The study is limited to dealing with the 3rd to 6th graders of a prima-ry school. Earlier studies show that there is not a lot of studies about health education in primary schools compared to studies about secondary and high schools. The theory of the research is largely based on the Curriculum and the didactics of health education. The as-signment of this study is ”How are the goals set by the curriculum implemented in the teaching of the primary school’s health education from the class teachers’ point of view?” Methods. The study was conducted as a qualitative case study. Eleven (11) class teachers from the Helsinki Metropolitan Area participated in this study. Teachers were interviewed with theme interviews. The analysis of the material was done by analyzing the content of the qualitative data, utilizing the thematic analysis and the Atlas.ti-analysis program. Results and Conclusions. According to the results of the study, class teachers felt they were motivated to teach health education. The teaching of health education emphasized the pupils’ everyday skills and their development. The importance of extensive expertise was highlighted by the importance of physical activity, interpersonal relationships and interaction. Nutrition, hygiene, sleep and rest were also relevant health education contents. Class teachers felt that they were doing a lot of multiprofessional co-operation with pupils' well-being, but most teachers felt they would cooperate most with the pupils’ parents. Teachers felt that the greatest responsibility for well-being was seen to be the pupils themselves. According to the conclusions, health education is perceived as a very talkative and functional subject that is taught especially through everyday situations in the primary school. Health education is a very important part of the growth and development of pupils but there is no need for health education to be its own subject in primary school. The purpose of health information is to promote the well-being and health of students and the development of everyday skills.