Learning Area Health Education 1

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2015:

170 hours

Teacher Candidates must meet the minimum academic study requirements for teaching in specialist areas, in accordance with the Victorian Institute of Teaching's Specialist Area Guidelines, for entry into this subject.

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.

The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject introduces teacher candidates to the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) Health and Human Development and the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) strand, Physical, Personal and Social Learning and emphasises the role that health education plays in equipping secondary students with the knowledge and skills to take ownership of their personal health and wellbeing.

Teacher candidates will critically examine how definitions of ‘health’ are influenced by personal values and experiences, the media, public policy and school policies. They will explore the role of the teacher in helping school students to develop critical literacy and numeracy skills around issues pertaining to their health and wellbeing and discuss the ways in which a socially just health curriculum functions as a tool for public health promotion. Numeracy skills include: the analysis of Health statistics, data, graphs and describing trends and drawing conclusions, applying knowledge of percentages in representative data and skills of collecting, recording, interpreting and presenting health related data in a range of formats such as graphs, tables, posters and charts.

Teacher candidates will be introduced to subject-specific requirements around programming, assessment and classroom management. They will also create a variety of teaching and learning resources including unit and lesson plans, assessment tasks and various health promotional teaching tools.

On completion of this subject, teacher candidates will be able to:

• Critically engage with the notion of health and the role that health educators play in fostering a whole-school approach to student wellbeing.
• Discuss a number of health-related issues that impact on the lives of young people both locally and globally and ask how these issues are relevant to the contemporary classroom.
• Identify, analyse and design suitable health education teaching resources that cater for the learning needs of students in years 7-12.
• Use planning and programming as strategies for managing the health education classroom. Promote literacy and numeracy skills when analysing statistics and data relating to current health trends.
• Identify specific learning needs of a variety of school student populations and devise strategies to ensure an inclusive, socially just, health promoting classroom.
• Explain a personal philosophy of teaching and learning that incorporates models and theories of health promotion.

The subject covers a range of the National Professional Standards for Teachers (for Graduate Teachers). In particular, the subject will contribute to students attaining the following standards:

2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

2.2 Content selection and organisation

2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting

2.6 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

3.1 Establish challenging learning goals

3.2 Plan, structure and sequence learning programs

3.3 Use teaching strategies

3.4 Select and use resources

3.5 Use effective classroom communication

4.1 Support student participation

4.2 Manage classroom activities

5.1 Assess student learning

There are 2 assessment tasks:

• Multimedia presentations (1500 word equivalent) due mid semester, 40%
• VCE Unit of work, due end of semester, 60%

Attendance at all classes (tutorial/seminars/practical classes/lectures/labs) is obligatory. Failure to attend 80% of classes will normally result in failure in the subject.

None

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

On completion of this subject, teacher candidates will have the knowledge, skills and understanding to enable them to:

• Work cooperatively in teams, skilled in communication and negotiation; effectively articulating the importance of Health Education;
• Plan, implement and critique mandated curriculum, drawing on a range of teaching practices to extend individual students’ learning and development
• Explain the role of literacy, numeracy and language in Health Education
• Be a self reflective teacher who can work constructively and innovatively through relationships with students, parents, colleagues and the community across a range of contexts
• Develop their teaching practice on the basis of research evidence;
• Be independent of mind, responsible, resilient, self-regulating and have a conscious personal and social values base