Health education training: perceptions of school teachers and undergraduate students

Abstract

Health education is based on planned learning experiences that enable individuals to make conscious, health-promoting choices through knowledge. To address this field within formal education, it is essential to train teachers using a pedagogical approach that fosters the integrated and contextualized construction of knowledge. An integrative literature review was conducted to determine the perceptions of school teachers and undergraduate students regarding their training to teach health education content. The guiding research question was: “Do school teachers and undergraduate students in pedagogy, biological sciences, and natural sciences perceive that they have adequate training to teach health education classes?” The studies analyzed revealed that teachers are not prepared to act as facilitators of these topics and lack the methodological tools to effectively incorporate health education as a cross-cutting theme in practice. Similarly, undergraduate programs do not ensure the necessary training in health education for an adequate approach to the subject in teaching practice. Therefore, it is necessary to improve initial teacher education and to design continuing education programs in health education that provide specific knowledge and tools aimed at preparing teachers to use it as an instrument for individual and social change.