EDUCATION OF 5TH–8TH FORM SCHOOL LEARNERS IN THE FIELD OF HEALTH PROMOTION

The aim of this work was to investigate peculiarities of the life style of younger teenagers, main factors influencing their life style, and integration of the content of health promotion into educational system. This paper deals with education of 5th–8th form school learners in the field of health promotion. The analysis of health promotion in lessons of different subjects taught in secondary schools is presented. The research was conducted in 2003–2006 in various secondary schools all over Lithuania. The method of anonymous questionnaire was applied. The research involved school learners of 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th forms: 545 boys and 731 girls. The total sample of school learners involved in the research was 1276. According to the opinion of teenagers, their life style is mostly influenced by the life style of their parents and family. The biggest attention to the health promotion is paid during lessons of natural sciences, physical culture and technologies. Most frequently school learners study problems of healthy nourishment, communication and interaction, drug and smoking prevention. More than a third of the respondents indicated absence of issues related to the mental health, stress management, sexual compulsion and tooth care. More than half of the school learners indicated lack of discussions related with prevention of heart diseases, cancer, and allergies. Most frequently, health promotion–related problems are integrated into all disciplines thought at school. Applying this model, teachers of all subjects are responsible for implementation of the programme and school learners can promptly get answers to relevant questions. However, the main imperfection of this method is difficulties in co-ordination of the programme implementation. There frequently occur cases when the same topic (e.g., healthy nourishment) is analysed during the lessons of several subjects (e. g., biology, technology, foreign language), whereas some important problems, requiring special knowledge of a teacher (e. g., stress management, sexual education) are usually neglected. Successful implementation of the health promotion programme can be achieved employing an integrated educational model and a specially appointed person can administer co-ordination of teachers of different study subjects.