PHYSICAL EDUCATION WEEK DISCUSSION TOPIC:
I think a strengths-based curriculum for HPE is (should be) ….
Teacher 1:
I think astrengths-based curriculum takesa positivist position of a learner. It recognises they bring a wide range of individualised skills, competencies experiencesto the HPE curriculum in situ. It also acknowledges that contexts vary i.e. Personal and community resources.
It implies that all students have the possibility to nurture their own and others health, well being, movement competencies and participation in physical activity.
However it doesn't acknowledge the possibility that these contexts could be detrimental to the possibility of maximising learning within the HPE curriculum and taking account of these can be a positive learning experience also e.g. What are the risks of……
Teacher 2:
A Strengths-based curriculum considers:
- what kids can do
- want kids want to learn
- school location
- available resources
- established community links
- teacher expertise
- established school culture
Teacher 3:
In Australia most children and young people are healthy. Most will grow up to be aged and most will live in homes where they are fed, and looked after. Most will have strengths and resources that have been nurtured through living in strong, connected, healthy and safe families and communities. Given this, teaching HPE in Australian schools is not necessarily about educating children to become healthy because they are healthy, it is about providing them with lots of teaching and learning opportunities to become healthier and to build on their strengths.
In the past we have taught children in HPE through context-based education, through units of work such as: Alcohol and Drugs, Athletics, Basketball and Contraception. The underlying philosophy to context-based education was that it was better to expose and prepare children and young peoplefor these contexts,than not. The problem in doing this is that some children will never experience the contexts to which they were taught or they will never participate in the context again outside of the school environment. I learnt at school about heroin but have never found myself to be in a circumstance where heroin was on offer. However, I have been in many situations where I have needed the strength and resilience to say no.Also as an immigrant, I learnt Athletics for every year that I was educated in an Australian school and yet, other than as teacher of HPE, I have no interest in the sport of Athletics and would not pursue it for lifelong physical activity.
In addition context-based education purports itself as being preventive education but in effect it is still a form of reactive education that sometimes focuses too much on the negative and destructive elements of certain lifestyles.Through context-based education teachers constructlearning environments or learningcontexts to which children and young people are facedwith a particular problem, dilemma or risk. For example, “Let us teach children about Diabetes to prevent Diabetesbecause lots of Australian children will be Diabetics in later life.” This may be true, however, “Let usprovide education for the children that focuses on the skills to choose any healthier option so that they can live to be 100 and have an illness free life that excludes Diabetes.”This shift in the learning paradigm does not mean that the knowledge about Diabetes is redundant it just means that being healthy and healthier is more important.To illustrate this pointfurther, I remember when as a teacher I endeavoured to prevent children from smoking tobacco and I taught them about all the awful things that tobacco does to the body. Ineveronce focussed on all the wonderful things that they could achieve from having a tobacco free life.
Thus, in using a strengths-based approach to HPE it is important to remember thatthere is still value to the ideals of context-based education but rather than focussing on the context alone,focusmore on the strengths, skills and capacities that children and young people need to promote, enhance and enrichtheir own and others’health. For example, teaching children the skill to say no safely and positively across many contexts covers the huge range of environments that most children rather than a select few will experience. Finally, a strengths-based approach in schools is about appraising your school community and deciding what the children and young people need to be healthier and to support them to
build upontheirs and others’ strengths to lead healthful, physically active lives.
Teacher 4:
What’s in a name?
I am going to focus on a strengths based approach to Health Education. I think to a certain extent this is what we have always done. Acknowledge that most young people are generally healthy and asking what do they need to do to stay healthy. But is this enough or do we also need to incorporate the risk based model (prevention approach)?
I believe heath education is about enabling young people to discover how to make safe or safer health enhancing decisions. A strengths based approach suggests that young people are already making healthy decisions regarding their health behaviours and although this may be true at any one time, there are those in our classrooms who may be considering unsafe behaviours and those who are already engaging in risky behaviours. To ignore these young people albeit perhaps in the minority would make our classrooms exclusive, judgemental and ignoring the needs of those most at risk. The proportion of young people in these at risk categories also change according to age, context (alcohol Vs illicit drug use; food choice – primary vs secondary) and location (metropolitan Vs rural remote). Furthermore how do we predict which ones (1 in 4 mental health problem) will be in the at risk categories? In addition just because most may not be engaging in a behaviour that puts them at risk does not meant they won’t witness someone else engaging in that behaviour or be harmed by someone else’s risky behaviour. Adding further complexity, friends often know more about the health behaviours of their peers than parents, teachers, administrators and researchers. Therefore all young people need to know how to recognise someone at risk, predict risky situation, identify ways to keep themselves and others safe and where and how to access help. Suggesting we only follow a strengths based approach may be oversimplifying complex behaviours.
So what does this mean for teachers of health education? Clearly it is about acknowledging that most young people (depending on age, context and location) are engaging in healthy behaviours and encouraging them to maintain these decisions by emphasising this is the norm for their specific age groups; by encouraging those considering risky behaviours to delay that decision and by supporting those already engaging in risky behaviours to make safer decisions. This involves what I believe we have always done in health education; providing accurate, balanced, useful knowledge including the benefits of safe/safer health behaviours; problem prediction; ways to stay safer and help seeking. Some may call this a harm minimisation approach but it works for all contexts and has at its core the acknowledgement that the safest/ healthiest thing to do is not to engage in risky behaviours but if young people are putting their health at risk there are things they can do to be safer. In doing this we are being inclusive of all students.
So a harm minimisation approach, a risk based model, a strengths based approach; what’s in a name; as long as we advocate for health to be taught from an evidence based perspective by those trained in health education methods and we are provided with adequate time on the timetable to maximise the potential for ALL young people to make safe or safer health enhancing decisions.
A concern I have is that a strengths based approach might be misinterpreted by school administration. For instance if the message is that all young people are healthy, it may prompt the question: why do we need health education and trained health education teachers? Can’t the message be reinforced in all other classes? This is when we need to look to what the evidence says about maximising the potential for young people to stay healthy and safe. Having trained health education teachers is consistently identified in the prevention literature as a critical element in developing and maintaining these skills in young people. To ignore this is like saying that most teachers know how to read and write therefore why do we need trained English teachers – surely anyone could teach these skills?
Hence I believe a strengths based approach is not inconsistent with what we have been doing in health education in the past but we must be careful not to assume a one rule fits all perspective. Health behaviours do vary according to age, context and location and we must continue to be guided by what the evidence tells us best increases the potential for all young people to make safe decisions about their health.
Teacher 5