Health Education in Pre-School Institution: Integration, Effectiveness, Improvement

Overview & Synopsis

Health education is one of the key components of pre-school education. Preschool age children have acquired knowledge about health, and this forms the basis for developing, maintaining, and strengthening their health. However, children's knowledge of health is insufficient and their healthy lifestyle skills are insufficiently developed. On the one hand, the deteriorating trends in children's health raise certain challenges to the process of pre-school education, on the other hand, their health education possibilities are not fully known and exploited. Health education integration into pre-school/pre-primary education programmes remains a key priority of education policy. Although the importance of developing children's health competence is already noted in pre-school/pre-primary education programmes, various research studies show that children's health indicators are deteriorating. In January - March 2021, a qualitative research study was conducted, in which 102 kindergarten teachers from various Lithuanian preschool educational institutions participated. The aim of the research was to analyse the factors that promote, limit, and determine the integration of health education into pre-school education programmes and to reveal improvement possibilities. It has been established that the integration of health education is promoted by children's health problems and the changing understanding of the importance of children's health education. Proper teacher preparation, purposeful activities of the institution, and community involvement in health education remain essential components that determine the effectiveness of health education. Despite the positive attitude and motivation of teachers towards health education, there are still many unused opportunities for improving health education, which should be assessed both at the level of education policy and educational practice, respectively.