Health Education Development/What is Health Education?

I first began to consider many of the things explored in this subject as a young petty officer in the Navy. I was supposed to keep the lads (mostly) alive and healthy while they fulfilled their tasks in, often, arduous conditions. But, how? I had had a little health training in my first year of university. But, being from a rural working-class background without independent means some forty years ago, that journey was interrupted by military service. Let's face it, the films they showed us were better at putting us to sleep than keeping us alert to the problems and potentials. I stumbled across a few things that worked and failed in other ways. Sometimes, spectacularly. Both my success and my failures drove me to learn more. My failures still haunt me at night, I am not kidding. But, the successes made me want to do more. I found a way to continue my university studies while still on active duty and took courses in leadership and management. Then, I did a Bachelor of Science (Psychology) degree through the Navy Campus for Achievement program (Regents College, University of the State of New York, Albany) before leaving the Navy after my second enlistment. Much of this involved distance education and non-traditional forms of learning and assessment. As a Vietnam Era Veteran, I finished my master's degree and as a dual-citizen in Australia, my doctorate, wanting to know more. All of these years later, I still do and that is because I am still not yet clear about a few things. Consider the message in the cartoon to the right. Is the dumb bunny rushing to the Personnel Records Office (PRO) to change his will after a fight with his (then) spouse, or is he being urged to get his advice from a pro rather than some old 'sea bird' who might give bad advice after the fact? Maybe it was just a bad message in the first place. For instance, is the cartoon 'racist'? Hard to know unless we do some background research. There is so much more to be done. Join us in learning how to work together to do some good.

If you must be a dumb bunny..., Navy health education poster, 1945

Learning Outcomes

Below, you will find learning outcomes for the topic that explores where health education 'fits' into Public Health and Rehabilitation Counselling. This may not seem so obvious to some people. For others, the idea has some resonance; but, they might have difficulty recognising the practical significance. If you look further below this section, you will find the introductory materials that assist you in exploring and mastering each learning outcome. Before the lectorial session, find additional resources that allow you to elaborate a fuller answer to each of these questions above and the learning outcomes below. Be sure that you bring the source information to the lectorial and be prepared to help solve a complex problem. The learning outcomes for this week will focus on introducing the subject and orienting you towards your tasks. General resources for achieving your assessment tasks will be outlined and discussed. But, you are responsible to continuing to discover your own resources.

Upon completion of this topic, through your own investigations, group preparation, tutorial participation and lectorial explorations, you should be able to:

1. Describe the purpose of this subject to your friends and family and articulate a basic understanding of key concepts (e.g., social interdependence).
2. Identify the key themes that you will engage and use during the semester to begin to solve problems in the lectorials, tutorials and the larger context.
3. Outline the various tasks that you will be undertaking to both learn your craft and demonstrate your learning through group work and assessment tasks.
4. Explain to a class-mate what to do if they are experiencing difficulties in the subject or the course so that they can access and use appropriate resources.

Learning Activity

1. Read the introduction to the topic
2. Watch the videos in the topic playlist, and Aiming Higher: Bloom & Vygotsky in the classroom
3. Watch the recording of the lectorial
4. Obtain a copy of the Cooperative Learning Group Activities book and familiarise yourself with its structure. This is a key text in this subject.
5. Read the How to get good marks briefing paper.
6. Create a small team (under 5 people) and begin to consider a vulnerable group to focus your future team work on. The vulnerable group you select defines your assignment to facilitate an activity. Your assigned group will be one of (a) Refugee students, (b) Students with disabilities, (c) Same sex attracted young adults, (d) Students from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds, (e) Students from rural and remote areas, and (f) International students.
7. Begin to identify key issues for your vulnerable group's pathway through a tertiary setting and start to locate resources offered by universities to address those issues.
8. Browse search results for this topic's keywords: health education, literacy, cooperative learning, salutogenesis, planning, implementing, evaluating, group dynamics and processes, social psychology, phenomenology, gender, vulnerability, class and ethnicity.

Extended study option

What is health education and what strategies and methods might be used?

The following link will take you to the WHO site with information on this and related topics in the subject. Have a look around. The tracks are all quick reads with follow up references: http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/7gchp/track2/en/

Lindstrom and Eriksson (2011), long-time advocates for a salutogenic approach to public health, provide interesting arguments for distinguishing health education, health literacy and what they term healthy learning. What do you think? Lindstrom, B. and Eriksson, M. (2011) From health education to healthy learning: Implementing salutogenesis in educational science. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. 39(Suppl 6):85-92.

What is social psychology? This is one of the underlying foundations of this subject.

Here is a link to an older, but useful explanation and elaboration that covers a number of the topics of use in the subject. It is a site developed by retired Professor George Boeree: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/socpsy.html

Here is a link to a practical application relating to Bush Fires...well worth the time to read this brief document: http://www.bushfirecrc.com/managed/resource/applying_social_psychology.pdf

What is social interdependence?

This is a key aspect of social psychology and will be a supporting concept for cooperative learning: Johnson, D.W. (2003) Social Interdependence: Interrelationships among theory, research, and practice. American Psychologist. 58(11):934-945.

TIP: when you see a reference without a link, Google the title and you should be able to gain a copy; in some rare cases, you may have to use a library's Google Scholar portal.

What is cooperative learning?

This is an important strategy that builds on social interdependence and leverages the power of the group: Johnson, D.W. and Johnson, R.T. (2009) An educational psychology success story: Social interdependence theory and cooperative learning. Educational Researcher. 38(5):365-379.

What is phenomenology?

This is a way of slowing ourselves down to have a good look at what makes up the very things that we take for granted each day in our living.

Seamon, D. A way of seeing people and place: Phenomenology in environment-behavior research. In, Wapner, S., Demick, J., Yamamoto, T. and Minami, H. (Eds.) (2000) Theoretical perspectives in environment-behavior research. New York: Plenum, pp.157-78. (Available at SSRN; use the Anonymous download option): http://ssrn.com/abstract=2214430.

Seamon, D. (2000) Phenomenology, place, environment, and architecture: A review of the literature (online article). Accessed last on 30 January 2014 @ http://www.arch.ksu.edu/seamon/articles/2000_phenomenology_review.htm. (This article does not have page numbers; so, please use the section numbers to refer to this in any in-text references.)