Pedagogy in Health Promotion

Racism and colonialism operate as social determinants of health, contributing to inequities among Indigenous Peoples. To counteract these inequities, national and global calls to action have emphasized the need for cultural safety and anti-racism within healthcare. Higher education plays a crucial role in preparing an equipped workforce and shaping professional culture, making it essential to embed cultural safety and anti-racism training into the learning pathways of future health professionals. This study examined the determinants shaping the uptake and implementation of cultural safety and anti-racism training in Master of Public Health (MPH) programs across three universities within one Canadian province. Data were collected through key informant interviews, focus groups, and document analysis. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) guided comprehensive analysis of the barriers and facilitators influencing how these training interventions are being put into practice. Findings highlighted similarities and variations in cultural safety and anti-racism training approaches across MPH curricula, highlighting the evolving nature of this training. The study underscores the need for multi-level action that addresses individual, institutional, and systemic challenges, while leveraging existing strengths. The significance of this research lies in its potential to inform curriculum reform, pedagogical practice, policy development, and professional culture in public health and related disciplines. To support academic units, a self-assessment tool developed from the findings offers a structured framework to reflect on and enhance efforts in implementing cultural safety and anti-racism training.

In the contemporary primary education system, teachers are expected to improve their health knowledge to ensure the healthy development of the children. For teachers, in-service training programs act as a key source of information to improve their conceptions of student health. Based on this context, the aim of the study was to explore the effectiveness of in-service training programs in elevating the health conceptualization of primary school teachers for classroom management. The study utilized an exploratory qualitative design, guided by a social constructionist approach. 20 primary school teachers were selected through purposive sampling, and the required data were collected through in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis was conducted on the collected data to generate the themes. The themes generated from the analysis are: loose coupling of training programs, deskilling of the teachers, and de-medicalization of students’ health. These themes highlight the limitations of the in-service training programs in orienting teachers to be involved in the holistic development of children. In addition to this, the findings of the study point out that teachers are not receiving relevant health information for promoting the healthy development of children, as outdated content is provided in the in-service training programs. The study stresses that there is an essentiality of revitalizing the programs to bridge the gap between the health conceptualization of teachers and the health needs of children in the classrooms.

Drawing is an effective teaching pedagogy in medical education, particularly in teaching anatomy. Drawing for retention (DfR) serves as a pedagogical technique designed to enhance retention by incorporating an active learning cyclic process to facilitate deeper understanding, reinforcing both conceptual understanding and practical application. However, no research has considered its effectiveness for applied concepts such as 12-lead ECG interpretation. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore student perceptions of DfR as a teaching technique. Fourteen paramedic students (nine male, five female) participated in this phenomenological qualitative study. Data saturation guided the number of participants. Participants were interviewed via Zoom using a semi-structured interview guide. Data were analyzed through phenomenological reduction, with data coded for common themes and subthemes. Trustworthiness was established via member checks, peer review, and multi-analyst triangulation. Three themes emerged: experience with technique, benefits, and challenges. Through initial instruction, participants learned about supporting research to using DfR, which allowed them to buy into the process. While some were hesitant about the technique, participants felt they transformed their learning through drawing. DfR is active, allowing participants to feel engaged through class. Additionally, DfR is an inclusive teaching technique, in which it fits many perceived learning styles, which improved confidence. Finally, challenges of time, initial resistance, and instructor facilitation impacted DfR. DfR aligns with active learning principles and offers potential advantages as an inclusive and cost-effective educational strategy. Despite challenges, participants reported benefits of retention and increased confidence and felt this was an effective educational technique.

Drawing is established as an effective teaching pedagogy in medical education, particularly in teaching anatomy. Research shows retention rates are significantly higher when learners engage in active learning techniques. Additionally, practical application is greater with active learning techniques. Drawing for retention (DfR) is an active learning technique involving instructor-led drawing, where students imitate the drawings while simultaneously rehearsing key concepts. There is a paucity of research examining the effectiveness of DfR for applied concepts such as 12-lead ECG interpretation. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore student perceptions following their engagement with Drawing for Retention (DfR) as a teaching technique. Fourteen paramedic students (9 males, 5 females) participated in this phenomenological qualitative study. Data saturation guided the number of participants. Participants were interviewed via Zoom using a semi-structured interview guide. Data were analyzed through phenomenological reduction, with data coded for common themes and subthemes. Trustworthiness was established via member checks, peer review, and multi-analyst triangulation. Two themes emerged: perceptions of learning and application to patient care. Participants felt drawing allowed them to make connections with complex material while retaining the information. Additionally, participants did not need to spend as much time studying to retain the information, as compared to traditional lecture classes. Additionally, participants were able to bridge the knowledge-practice gap and apply the information clinically. This led to more effective and efficient patient diagnoses, increased confidence with patient care, and a resource for making decisions and providing patient education.

While digital platforms have emerged as potential solutions for nutrition education, many fail to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. This perspective paper introduces the Healthy Choice platform, a currently implemented digital learning environment that promotes nutrition literacy through scenario-based experiences. The paper also proposes future enhancement through the integration of pedagogical AI agents. The platform currently enables students to analyze case scenarios, evaluate real-world products, and develop evidence-based recommendations through an interactive interface. However, creating and maintaining effective learning scenarios while providing personalized feedback presents significant challenges for instructors. To address these limitations, we propose the integration of four specialized pedagogical AI agents: Scenario Generation, Complexity Management, Product Selection, and Feedback Generation. This integration represents a transformative approach to nutrition education, offering solutions to longstanding challenges in content creation, adaptation and feedback provision. It also creates opportunities for more consistent, scalable, and adaptive learning experiences. The success of this model could have broader implications for health education disciplines, though further research is needed to validate its impact on learning outcomes and skill transfer to real-world situations.

This article presents innovative practices for teaching social determinants of health (SDH) in undergraduate education, using the themes of place, words, food, and craft as the foundation for trans-regional and multidisciplinary discussions. Based on this thematic model, we developed a course that brought together students from The Netherlands and Myanmar, as well as insights from the humanities, social sciences, and the life sciences, to examine SDH. Through a virtual exchange between students from The Netherlands and Myanmar, where a civil war disrupted education and devastated the health and well-being of people, students discussed topics that ranged from words describing menstruation in their mother tongue to their visions for a more just and equitable future. In these ways, democratic and deliberate spaces were provided for students to gain a multifaceted understanding of SDH. Most importantly, by providing education to those without access and cultivating trans-regional knowledge exchange, privileging local knowledge, as articulated by the students themselves, the curriculum embodied the very ideals the SDH framework strives for. The authors invite future SDH courses to explore virtual learning and multidisciplinary integration to expand the meaning of a university classroom.

It is vital that the next generation of public health practitioners understand the importance of ensuring affordable and equitable access to safe drinking water for all communities, and the interconnected roles that scientific research, public policy, community engagement, and advocacy play in ensuring this. Here, we describe the Water Tool, a website where student-users develop an exploratory and customizable journey through data on drinking water suppliers’ compliance with regulations, watershed pollution, and environmental justice: https://eew-sdwa-nj.streamlit.app/ In the course we built alongside a New Jersey-specific version of the Water Tool, students complete three in-class assignments and a final project. They first use it to answer a basic set of questions such as, how many public water systems are there in the state? Students then find their own water provider through an interactive map and describe the provider’s source water and number of persons served. Next, they use the tool to investigate socioeconomic, biophysical, and public health indicators of environmental inequity in their area. In the final project, students reflect on the meaning of the information they compiled and how to communicate it. Through hands-on engagement with data and structured opportunities for reflection, the Water Tool enables students to learn both about how drinking water is regulated and how to assess information on drinking water quality for specific water systems. Although we designed the tool and assignments specifically with New Jersey in mind, it could be reconfigured for use in other states or more local contexts.

The undergraduate public health student body in the United States is increasingly diverse. The University of Washington Public Health-Global Health Major students are typically 80% Black, Indigenous, or people of color and 40% first-generation college students. Many students lack finances to accept unpaid research internships to further their careers following graduation. To address this equity issue, we embedded experiential learning into a required research course, ensuring all students gain practical, transferable public health research skills. In our large (>100 upper-level students) active-learning course, students design and conduct a complete cross-sectional study in one 10-week term. Using a flipped classroom approach, each instructor and teaching assistant coaches four groups of students to apply pre-recorded didactic lessons on each step of the research process to their study. Student groups complete highly structured deliverables during class and receive feedback twice weekly. Multiple, low-stakes assignments encourage individual learning. Daily group work culminates in two large assignments: a research protocol and report. As a result of this course, every graduate of our program—regardless of socioeconomic position—has at least one in-depth research experience on their resume. We have applied this teaching format 17 times over 7 years, reaching over 2,000 students. Graduates state that this class helped them obtain employment and prepared them for public health graduate studies. This course’s highly structured active-learning methods, including dedicated coaching and incremental, cumulative assignments, supports the undergraduate classroom as a space for promoting equity and preparing students for future employment and graduate education.