Overview of the Health Action Model
The Health Action Model adopted for the Saskatchewan health education program focuses the attention of students on the responsible application of health knowledge.
This model provides the foundation for the grade 1 to 5 curriculum. All of its components are considered essential if the students are to acquire the skills necessary to transfer health information into "health action" in their daily life.
First, shared responsibility underlies the program structure. The curriculum guide links the classroom program to complementary programs in the community, and recognizes the continuing health education provided throughout life by the home and by health care agencies. Local decision-making is a requirement to take community perception of local needs into account. The framework of topics in the elementary level health education curriculum guide offers much flexibility to allow for emphasis on sub-topics perceived as areas of priority within the community. This curriculum suggests that a liaison or consultative committee be established. One of its functions would be to provide a forum for such local decision-making.
Second, the three-level Decision-making Process, guides teachers and students as they address a variety of health education topics. Students gain practice in applying lifelong learning skills as they repeatedly go through the three levels of this process:
Third, the content of the grade 1 to 5 curriculum is organized around four broad, interrelated topics:
• A Healthy Body
• Relationships
• Safety
• Self-esteem
Fourth, student learning is directed toward an ultimate aim presented earlier. This aim, focuses on health promotion and disease/disability prevention through the increase of "health-enhancing" behaviours and the decrease of "health-risking" behaviours.
This aim encompasses traditional approaches to health education and the current "wellness" movement. It grows out of the 1947 World Health Organization's definition:
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.
A perspective specific to each grade level provides a developmental focus as students progress towards the achievement of the aim and goals of the curriculum. At the elementary level, the perspectives are:
Grade 1: "Being Models of Wellness"
Grade 2: "Discovering Wellness Patterns"
Grade 3: "Gathering Facts for Wellness"
Grade 4: "Applying Decisions for Wellness"
Grade 5: "Considering the Wellness of Others"
The curriculum guide provides for and encourages local decision-making. The sample units are suggested models or examples, and leave room for local planning. Flexibility in the choice of specific issues within the four broad topics takes into account the many variables that exist at the local level and gives schools the opportunity to join in with national, provincial and local program thrusts that may be highlighted from year to year.
Principles underlying the Health Action Model
The principles of the Health Action model are the basis of health education in a pluralistic, democratic society where "health" is valued as a goal for all citizens and therefore all students. The following principles outline the philosophy of the Health Education curriculum.
• Physical, social, emotional, moral and spiritual development are cornerstones of all education, particularly health education.
• Responsible health-enhancing behaviour is based on knowledge of facts and basic values instilled through the teachings of the home, the school and the community.
• Health is more than an educational goal. A healthy living environment is essential throughout the school, not just in health education classes. The school, as a living environment, provides many opportunities for the student to apply health principles acquired at home, in the community, from the media and from formal school curricula. The school can also be destructive to health if basic principles of healthy living are ignored.
• The school, in assuming its unique responsibilities for providing health education, must consider the age, maturity and needs of individual children from a wide variety of home backgrounds.
• The role of the family in health education deserves special consideration. The "family" includes those people who provide unconditional love, understanding, long-term commitment, compassion and encouragement. Variations in family living patterns in our society include nuclear and extended families, the single-parent family, the blended family and the broken family. Children from each type of family deserve equal consideration and respect.
• Basic values such as justice, compassion, truth, the dignity of the person, empathy and tolerance for divergent viewpoints are universally held values in a pluralistic society and fundamental to health instruction. Democracy in the health education classroom is valued, with respect shown for majority and minority opinions.
• Because religious and non-religious belief systems of families sometimes affect decision making in health, individual families in our pluralistic society can expect that their beliefs as they affect health will be respected. In return, the school expects parents to tolerate respect by teachers for the beliefs of all students and their families.
• Shared responsibility for health promotion and disease/disability prevention requires that all parties involved in the program be active contributors and active listeners. Mutual respect characterized by consideration and flexibility is a dominant aspect of this shared responsibility. These factors are of even greater importance when two or more cultures are involved.
Recognition of these underlying principles is requisite for meaningful health education.