Memo
To: Ms. Sue Wittick, Michigan Department of Education
From: Christine Karshin, Ph.D., Health Education Program Coordinator, EMU
Re: State approval of the Health Education Minor
Date:
Please consider this our rejoinder
to the October 2002 critique of the health education minor at
We have made
substantial revisions to our program, based on the Department’s critique. A copy of the documents that went through the
EMU’s review/approval system are attached for your
reference.
Part II. Response to Comments Made in the Critique
We are attaching a copy of the October 2002 critique. Given below you will find our response to each item mentioned in the critique and how we have addressed that with our program revisions.
New courses “Current Health Issues I” and “Current Health Issues II” have been developed to address the concern over the lack of health issues directly related to children and adolescents (see course proposals: HLED 305 Current Health Issues I; and HLED 315 Current Health Issues II). The health topics being addressed by these two classes include: nutrition, physical activity, dental health, emotional health, intentional injuries, unintentional injuries, communicable and non-communicable diseases, environmental health, and consumer health. A focus will be placed on the prevention of health risks originating in childhood and adolescence. In addition to health content, both of the classes provide a wide variety of opportunities for students to enhance their skills in identifying and utilizing teaching strategies that develop conceptual knowledge, build skills, and meet selected performance indicators. Assignments such as the “Advocacy Assignment” (HLED 305), the “Teaching Assignment and Reflection Paper” and the “Community Health Education Web Site Project” (HLED 315) will provide an opportunity for the students to create materials for K-12 students, to advocate for greater amounts of family and community involvement in school health education, and to teach a health education lesson focused on at least one of the skills identified in the National Health Education Standards to K-12 students. In addition, the “Material Portfolio” assignment (HLED 305) will provide an opportunity to prepare materials for adult learners.
Another new course, “Instructional Skills and Strategies in Health Education: (HLED 325) has also been created to provide students with an opportunity to familiarize themselves with health issues that are developmentally appropriate for K-12 students. Content maps, scope and sequence plans, and a unit for instruction are just a sampling of the topics and assignments that students will be required to become proficient in (see course proposal: HLED 325: Instructional Skills and Strategies in Health Education).
In addition, the Concepts of Sexuality Education course (HLED 460 – formerly known as HLED 360) addresses issues that affect sexual beings of all ages (i.e., sources of sex education, gender development, the sexual male and female bodies, love and relationships, etc.). The “Sexuality Program and Presentation” assignment (see course proposal: HLED 460 Concepts of Sexuality Education) requires students to create a sexuality lesson for either K-12 students or a specified community population.
HLED 490: Drug Use and Abuse (formerly known as HLED 390) is a course that draws students from a variety of disciplines (i.e., health education, criminology, nursing, psychology, sociology, coaching, and secondary education). Therefore, the material presented must include issues from the perspective of an adult, since many of the students in the class will be working with adult populations. However, a strong emphasis is also placed on children and adolescent drug use, as well as the preparation of materials for the K-12 population for those pre-services students. For example, the “CSHP Project” will provide students pursuing a teaching career the opportunity to plan a “theme week” for an ATOD topic appropriate for a school setting.
The two new courses “Current Health Issues I” (HLED 305) and “Current Health Issues II” (HLED 315) address the need for students to demonstrate the ability to solve problems, make decisions, and set goals related to personal health [standard 1.2.3]. Influencing factors such as peer pressure, societal views, media, and values clarification will be addressed when discussing topics such as psychosocial health, intentional injury, non-communicable disease, communicable disease, health product and services selection, and environmental health. In addition, a variety of intervention techniques (i.e., conflict resolution as a method to combat bullying) will be discussed to minimize health risks (see course proposals HLED 315; HLED 305). Concepts of Sexuality Education (HLED 460) also provides an opportunity for students, through a variety of in-class activities, to demonstrate their ability to make good decisions and set goals towards sexual health (i.e., choosing a reliable contraceptive method, avoiding situations that place one at risk for becoming a victim of sexual assault, qualities to look for in choosing a life partner, etc.).
The revised Health Education minor provides ample opportunity for students to enhance their communication skills through both written assignments and opportunities to speak/teach in schools and in the community. The “Advocacy Assignment” for the Current Health Issues I course (see course proposal HLED 305) provides an opportunity for students to prepare materials for the purpose of encouraging parent and community involvement in health education. The “Community Health Education Web Site Project” for the Current Health Issues II course (see course proposal HLED 315)also provides an opportunity for students to prepare materials for elementary and secondary students, health educators, and parents. In addition, the “Sexuality Education Advocacy Letter” for the Concepts of Sexuality Education class (HLED 460) requires that students write a professionally crafted letter to a school superintendent advocating for comprehensive sexuality education in their school district.
The Instructional Skills and Strategies in Health Education course (HLED 325) and the Current Health Issues II (HLED 315) course will provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate effective interpersonal communication skills in the classroom. Both courses require students to teach a health lesson to K-12 students. The students’ communication skills will be evaluated by the cooperating classroom instructor.
The new course Health Education Program Planning (HLED 355) requires students to conduct a face-to-face interview with a health education stakeholder in a local school or in the community to seek ideas regarding the need for additional health education programs for a targeted population (see course proposal HLED 355). The information obtained will assist in the creation of a needs assessment instrument.
Violence prevention in schools and in the community is discussed in Current Health Issues I (HLED 305). Conflict resolution strategies, the role of policy in prevention of violence and successful programming in schools and in the community will be discussed in length (see course proposal HLED 305).
2.
Standard 2
a. “The courses that are used to define
compliance with this standard are not adequate. At no point in the courses
identified do students conduct a needs assessment or analyze the results of
that assessment. They are neither selecting nor applying appropriate data
gathering information.”
A new course “Health Education Program Planning” has been developed to address deficiencies related to needs assessment processes (see course proposal for HLED 355: Health Education Program Planning). Students enrolling in this course will be required to develop, administer, and analyze data produced by, a needs assessment instrument. In order to best meet the student’s individual needs, the instrument may be administered in either a school or a community setting. Instruction and activities related to this component of the course will take place in weeks two through seven. Following those weeks, the course will focus on the utilization of results from the needs assessment to guide the program planning processes of writing goals and objectives, intervention selection/development and implementation, marketing, and evaluation.
In addition to the focus on primary data collection in HLED 355, students will be provided with multiple opportunities to identify, access, and utilize secondary data from a variety of sources at the national, state, and local levels (see course proposals: HLED 270 Principles of Health Education; HLED 305 Current Health Issues I; HLED 315 Current Health Issues II; HLED 460 Concepts of Sexuality Education; and HLED 490 Drug Use and Abuse).
In order to prepare students to
analyze and apply state laws and local policies pertaining to health education,
multiple exposures to this issue have been integrated into course content and
assignments throughout the program (see course proposals: HLED
270 Principles
of Health Education; HLED 325 Instructional Skills and Strategies in Health
Education; HLED 460 Concepts of Sexuality Education; and HLED 490 Drug Use and
Abuse).
3.
Standard 3
a. “Standards 3, 4, 5 and 6 are seriously
deficient. There is a severe deficiency
in the actual planning, implementation and evaluation of school based health
instruction. There are 2 classes where curriculum
appears on the syllabi. It appears for
one week each time, totaling about 5 hours of instruction.
There is no secondary methods class, no class requires students to
obtain teaching experience and no class requires students to teach in an actual
school setting. Only one class has a
lesson plan development as a requirement, HLED 360, Concepts in School Sex
Education. Since this is a minor program
where student teaching is required only in the major, students can graduate
from this program with certification in health education without ever teaching
a health lesson.”
Students in the Health Education Minor are introduced to the Michigan Content Standards and Benchmarks in Health Education and their application to curriculum development and lesson planning in several courses. Activities that will enhance the students’ ability to plan effective school-based health education programs include the opportunity to create an instructional unit plan demonstrating their ability to develop an appropriate scope and sequence plan that includes learning activities aligning with identified performance indicators (See course proposal, HLED 325: Instructional Skills and Strategies for Health Education; see Description of Course Assignment: HLED 325: (2) Block Plan; (4) 5-Day Teaching Unit; and (5) Teaching Practicum)
A new course, HLED 355, Health Education Program Planning was devised to address the identified deficiencies in the area of planning. Utilizing the results of the needs assessment and interviews with Health Education stakeholders, the students will also plan a developmentally appropriate health education program (See course proposal, HLED 355: Health Education Program Planning; Description of Course Assignments- Health Education Program Proposal).
In HLED 460 (formerly 360) students create an effective sexuality education lesson for schools or the community. (See course proposal HLED 460: Concepts of Sexuality Education). The SIECUS guidelines for comprehensive sexuality education are used to identify key concepts and related topics. (See Description of Course Assignments: HLED 460). The student teaches an activity from his/her lesson plan to his/her peers as a part of the assignment.
In HLED 490 (formerly 390), students (in the teaching degree program) complete a “CSHP Project”. (HLED 490: Drug Use and Abuse, Description of Course Assignments). Students plan a “theme” week for an ATOD topic for a school setting. For the Health Education component, they are required to review the age-appropriate lessons from the Michigan Model for consistency with performance indicators and teaching strategies.
HLED 305, Current Health Issues I includes a “Materials Portfolio” assignment. (See course proposal HLED 305: Current Health Issues I, Description of Course Assignments- Materials Portfolio). This assignment provides skill development in the design of developmentally appropriate modules consistent with the performance indicators and Michigan Standards. Additionally, this skill is addressed in the Community Health Education Web Site Project assignment that is a part of HLED 315: Current Health Issues II. (See HLED 315: Current Health Issues II, Description of Course Assignment- Community Health Education Web Site Project).
4.
Standard 4
a. “Standards 3, 4, 5, and 6 are seriously
deficient. There is a severe deficiency
in the actual planning, implementation and evaluation of school based health
instruction. There are 2 classes where
curriculum appears on the syllabi. It
appears for one week each time, totaling about 5 hours of instruction.
There is no secondary methods class, no class requires students to
obtain teaching experience and no class requires students to teach in an actual
school setting. Only one class has lesson plan development as a requirement,
HLED 360. Concepts of School Sex Education. Since this is a minor program where student
teaching is required only in the major, students can graduate from this program
with certification in health education without ever teaching a health lesson.”
The Instructional Skills and Strategies in Health Education course (HLED 325) addresses many of the concerns the reviewers had regarding implementation of school based health instruction (see course proposal HLED 325). This course will provide students an opportunity to teach a health lesson, that they create, to K-12 students. The implementation of the health lesson will follow the administration of a pre-test designed by the student, to assess the K-12 students’ knowledge and skill level on an identified health topic. The data obtained by the pre-test will assist the student in the design of a 5-day teaching unit. In addition to teaching a lesson to school-aged students, the student will also teach a planned activity to his/her peers. As part of the planning process, students will be directed on how to select effective health education curriculum materials and strategies that are developmentally appropriate, culturally appropriate, student-centered, skill-based, account for special learning needs and multiple intelligences, and that incorporate technology. Instruction on how to identify teaching strategies that develop conceptual knowledge, build skills, and meet selected performance indicators will also be addressed in the two current health issues courses (HLED 305 and HLED 315).
Students will also be given an opportunity to teach a health lesson to K-12 students when enrolled in the Current Health Issues II course (HLED 315). A lesson plan developed as an assignment for the Concepts of Sexuality Education course (HLED 460) will be taught to their peers.
As part of the new course Health Education Program Planning (HLED 355), students will be responsible for designing a health education program. A significant component of this program will be the process evaluation component. Although the students will not be responsible for implementing their designs, they will develop an understanding of the importance of the constant monitoring needed to ensure that the educational strategies and activities are best meeting the needs of the intended audience.
The new course Health Education Assessment (HLED 450) provides an opportunity for students to evaluate the effectiveness of their unit plan, and corresponding lessons created in the HLED 325 course (a pre-requisite). The assessment plan will focus on two health lessons in the unit plan, and will consist of one teacher-made pre-test/post-test, one rubric for a performance-based assessment, and one embedded assessment. Additionally, each plan will identify and justify group performance criteria for effectiveness of the unit plan being evaluated (see course proposal HLED 450).
5. Standard 5
a.
“Standards 3, 4,
5 and 6 are seriously deficient. There
is a severe deficiency in the actual planning, implementation and evaluation of
school based health instruction. There are 2 classes where curriculum appears
on the syllabi. It appears for one week
each time, totaling about 5 hours of instruction.
There is no secondary methods class, no class requires students to
obtain teaching experience and no class requires students to teach in an actual
school setting. Only one class has a
lesson plan development as a requirement, HLED 360, Concepts in School Sex
Education. Since this is a minor program
where student teaching is required only in the major, students can graduate
from this program with certification in health education without ever teaching
a health lesson.”
The Health Education minor is introduced to the need for evaluation (as one of the seven major responsibilities of health education) in the Principles of Health Education (HLED 270). The professional preparation courses (HLED 325: Instructional Skills and Strategies for Health Education; HLED 355: Health Education Program Planning; & HLED 450: Health Education Assessment) also provide students with the opportunity to further develop and enhance their evaluation skills.
An objective for HLED 325: Instructional Skills and Strategies for Health Education is to “develop and implement effective strategies and instruments to assess students’ work.” (See course proposal HLED 325). Additionally the course assignments, “Teaching Practicum” and “Self/Peer Evaluation” provide further practical skill development in this area (see Description of Course Assignment: HLED 325: Instructional Skills and Strategies for Health Education- (5) Teaching Practicum and (6) Self/Peer Evaluation).
HLED 355: Health Education Program Planning includes an objective to, “select appropriate items for the creation of an effective health education evaluation strategy using performance-based assessments.” (See course proposal HLED 355: Health Education Program Planning). Additionally, students are required to provide an evaluation strategy for the Health Education Program Proposal assignment for the class (see Description of Course Assignments: HLED 355; (3) Health Education Program Proposal).
The new course HLED 450, Health Education Assessment heavily addresses the performance indicators for Standard 5. (See course proposal HLED 450). All 15 of the course objectives are designed to meet the criteria listed for Standard 5. Additionally, the course assignments also prepare the student with the development of assessment skills. (See Description of Course Assignment: HLED 450: Health Education Assessment, (1) Assessment Plan and (2) Implementation and Analysis of Assessment Plan). In these assignments, students revise an assessment plan for the health education unit plan developed in HLED 325. Additionally, they will teach lessons from the unit plan to students in a local school and then evaluate those lessons using the assessment plan developed in the HLED 450 class.
This Standard is further addressed with the HLED 460 assignment, “Sexuality Program and Presentation.” (See Description of Course Assignments, HLED 460: (2) Sexuality Program and Presentation). This assignment requires an evaluation plan and tools. The Social Norms activity in the HLED 490 class provides additional skills as student explore possible explanations for findings in the CORE data (See Description of Course Assignment, HLED 490: Drug Use and Abuse- (2) Social Norms Activity).
There is no secondary methods class, no class requires students to
obtain teaching experience and no class requires students to teach in an actual
school setting. Only one class has a
lesson plan development as a requirement, HLED 360, Concepts in School Sex
Education. Since this is a minor program
where student teaching is required only in the major, students can graduate
from this program with certification in health education without ever teaching
a health lesson.”
Students in the Health Education minor are introduced to the coordinated school health program in the HLED 270 (Principles of Health Education) class. In addition, the following professional preparation classes assist the student in gaining the content knowledge and specific skills needed to help implement a coordinated school health program; HLED 305 (Current Health Issues I), HLED 315 (Current Health Issues II), HLED 325 (Instructional Skills and Strategies in Health Education), HLED 355 (Health Education Program Planning), and HLED 490 (Drug Use and Abuse).
HLED 305: Current Health Issues I has the objective of, “propose approaches for the integration of health education within existing school programs.” (See course proposal HLED 305). Additionally, two assignments for the class provide skill development specific to the parent and community component of the coordinated school health model. (See Description of Course Assignments: HLED 305, Current Health Issues I- (1) Advocacy Assignment and (3) Policy Project). For the requirements of these assignments, students prepare materials for the purpose of encouraging parent and community involvement in health education, as well as develop a report advocating for the development and implementation of school and community policy designed to promote health and safety.
HLED 315: Current Health Issues II has the objective of, “advocate for and implement school policies that foster the health, wellness and safety of young people, as related to consumer health, environmental health, prevention of communicable diseases, and prevention of unintentional injury.” (See course proposal HLED 315). Additionally, the class assignment of developing a health education web site provides the opportunity to develop these skills (See Description of Course Assignments, HLED 315: Current Health Issues II- (3) Community Health Education Web Site Project).
HLED 325: Instructional Skills and Strategies for Health Education has the objective of, “demonstrate professional conduct that is becoming an educator by modeling conflict resolutions strategies that are taught to students.” (See course proposal HLED 325).
The Health Education Program Planning class (HLED 355) has the objectives, “seek ideas and opinions from health education stakeholders to avoid gaps and overlaps in the provision of the coordinated school health program” and “collaborate with school district and community personnel to provide integrated school health education programs and activities.” (See course proposal HLED 355). Two of the class assignments assist with this skill development, “Interview with Stakeholder (Health Education Coordinator, Health Education Policy Makers)” and “Health Education Program Proposal”. (See Description of Course Assignments: HLED 355, Health Education Program- (1) Interview with Stakeholder and (3) Health Education Program Proposal).
The Drug Use and Abuse course (HLED 490) has the objective: ”plan an effective ‘theme’ week for a school setting based on an appropriate ATOD topic utilizing the Coordinated School Health Program Model” (see course proposal HLED 490). This assignment will require students to have a strong understanding of the CSHP and to be proficient in planning and organizing a school-wide event that utilizes as many of the eight components as possible.
7. Standards 7 – 9
a.
“Most of the courses have some emphasis on helping students gain the skills required in Standards 7-9. In order to completely fulfill this
requirement, however, pre-service teachers will need to be in direct
contact with school children. I would recommend that they be given the
opportunity to apply these skills to a group of real school children.”
This comment will be addressed for each of the Standards (7-9) individually.
Standard 7: Candidates act as a resource person to others regarding healthy development.
Two new courses, HLED 305 (Current Health Issues I) and HLED 315 (Current
Health Issues II), have “acting as a resource person” as one of their major foci.
HLED 305 involves students in developing a materials portfolio for use as a
resource with children, adolescents, and adults. HLED 315 involves students in
developing a health education web-based resource for elementary and secondary
students, health teachers, and parents that provides annotated links to appropriate
health resources related to consumer health education, preventing environmental
health problems, preventing communicable diseases or preventing unintentional
injury. Additionally, students in this course are out in the schools teaching a
health lesson related to one of these topics. In the HLED 270 course (Principles of
Health Education (formerly HLED 370), students are asked to conduct a detailed
observation of a health education program in a school to determine the degree to
which the program meets recommendations for professional practice, including
identifying and accessing valid information sources, responding to requests for
health information and services, and selecting effective educational resource
materials. Additionally, both HLED 460 (Concepts of Sexuality Education)
(formerly HLED 360) and HLED 490 (Drug Use and Abuse) (formerly HLED
390) focus on certain aspects of acting as a resource person, especially regarding
consulting effectively with others requesting assistance with health concerns.
Both courses also emphasize selecting effective educational resources for
dissemination. The new course HLED 325 (Instructional Skills and Strategies in
Health Education) has a strong emphasis on selecting effective educational
resource materials for dissemination. Additionally, in this course students are in
schools teaching and evaluating a health lesson from the student-created unit plan.
Standard 8: The candidates advocate and communicate for child health and health education needs, concerns and resources.
Students are introduced to the need for effective communication and advocacy for
child health and health education in HLED 270 (Principles of Health Education).
During the observation assignment in this course, students will be in the field
evaluating how well a school health program advocates and communicates for
child health and health education. Students are also observing how well the
program meets current health concepts and purposes, and whether the program is
based on appropriate theories of school health education. In HLED 355 (Health
Education Program Planning) students are asked to interview a health educator in
a local school as part of a needs assessment process. As part of this assignment,
students will discuss the function of the health educator as a liaison between the
school and health service organizations.
Standard 9: Candidates practice reflectively, seeking opportunities to grow professionally.
The need for reflective practice and continuing professional development are
introduced
to Health Education students in the HLED 270 course (Principles of Health
Education). In this course students are asked to create a professional
development plan that presents a timeline for and description of activities
designed to advance their professional preparation as a Health Educator. Students
are encouraged to include specific sources of assistance including professional
health education organizations and the conferences they sponsor, professional
literature, and professional colleagues. Additionally, Health Education
students are encouraged to attend and participate in professional health
conferences. EMU’s chapter of Eta Sigma Gamma (Beta
Delta), the professional health education honorary, has recently been
reactivated. Members of Eta Sigma Gamma are given
hands-on opportunities to engage in a wide variety of teaching, service and
research projects to help them grow professionally.
Additional information needed/action to be taken
a.
“The
elementary methods class needs to address planning, implementation and
evaluation of health education (reviewers recommend that it be increased to 3
credit hours;”
The Health Education in the Elementary Grades course (HLED 320) is no longer a requirement for our minors. It is however, still a requirement for Elementary Education majors. The Instructional Skills and Strategies course (HLED 325) has replaced HLED 320 as a requirement for the health education minors. As described earlier, this course will prepare students to teach health education to K-12 students.
b.
“… a
secondary methods course needs to be designed and required;”
See above [Item “a”].
c.
“…it would be
beneficial for all of the content classes, nutrition, drugs, disease, etc. to
address specific issues to health of youth grades K-12 and specific teaching
techniques for each content area.”
As described earlier, the following courses address health issues specific to K-12 students and appropriate teaching techniques for each content area: HLED 305, HLED 315, HLED 325, HLED 460, and HLED 490.
d.
“Students
need to be required to develop unit plans and individual lesson plans designed
for skill based learning and they need to become proficient in performance
based assessment.”
Health education minors at
e.
“They need
practice teaching both with their peers and in actual school settings.”
The revised health education minor provides opportunities for students to teach a health lesson in the following courses: HLED 325 and HLED 315. They will have an opportunity to teach to their peers in the HLED 460 and HLED 325 courses.
f.
“Reviewers
recommend that either new courses are designed to accommodate this or existing
courses are revised to meet these standards”
In order to come into compliance with state standards, three existing courses were revised (Principles of Health Education, Drug Use and Abuse, & Concepts of Sexuality Education). Five new courses were developed (Current Health Issues I, Current Health Issues II, Instructional Skills and Strategies in Health Education, Health Education Program Planning, and Health Education Assessment).
Comments
a.
“The program
employs faculty who are strong in the area of health education. It is difficult to meet the State Standards
with a minor program but it can be done with 24 credits. Since EMU is requiring
24 credits already, they can come into compliance by revising their
curriculum. If they replace the elective
with a secondary methods class, and revise the core courses to meet the
The revised minor is also a 24 credit hour minor. We strongly believe that the revisions that we have made meet the Michigan State Standards. This is evident by our matrix and course proposals.
b.
“The program
is also very strong in requiring computer literacy. This will be especially
beneficial when pre-service teachers in the program are required to use those
skills in the application of health education.”
The technology component of our minor continues to be strong. We have maintained many of the assignments of the previous minor, and added to them with some of the new courses that have been developed.
c.
“Based on the
materials submitted, as it currently exists, this program is not yet in
compliance with the
A concerted effort has been made by the EMU health education faculty to create a health education program that meets each of the Michigan State Standards. You will note that each objective and assignment in the course syllabi has next to it a list of the standards and benchmarks that are applicable. We strongly believe that this revised minor will more than adequately prepare our minors to be effective teachers and advocates for health education in their communities.
If additional information is needed, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
______________________ _____________________ __________________
Christine Karshin, Ph.D. Ian Haslam, Ph.D. Jerry Robbins, Ph.D.
Health Education Program HPERD, Dept. Head Dean, College of
Coordinator Education
Attachments:
Program changes approved
Copy of MDE critique