A Study on Health Education Hours and Contents of the 6th Grade Primary School Curriculum

제 6차 초등학교 교육과정의 보건교육 시간 수 및 내용의 분석

Primary school is regarded as an important period when many health-related behaviors and life-styles begin to be formed. Acquiring them through school heath education has a strong influence on the health promotion of not only the family but also the community. Primary school health education in Korea has a systematic flaw in that health-related subjects are divided and taught under various subjects in primary school. In order to develop a proper school health curriculum, it is essential to assess what is currently being taught. In this study the current health education of the 6th grade primary curriculum was investigated to improve school health education. The purpose of this study is to identify the health education contents and time in textbooks of the 6th grade primary school curriculum. In this study, the textbooks & teacher's teaching manuals of the 6th grade curriculum were analyzed with a health instruction framework for Korean schools developed by the Korean Nurse Association & Korean School Health Education Association in 1993 and health care framework for health education curriculum presented by Kim in 1991. The results are as follows ; 1) Health education hours of the curriculum are 206 hours, about 34.3 hours a year. 2) The contents of health education were divided into nine subjects at primary schools. Organizing principles of learning experience(eg, integrity, sequence and continuity) were not considered sufficiently. The physical education & natural science subjects include a lot of health education contents. 3) The major content areas are community & environmental health areas and daily healthy life areas. 4) The major areas at each grade level are daily healthy concerns and safety & first-aid 5) The remarkable contrast to the 5th primary school curriculum are that environmental health is offered to the first grade step by step, and that drug use & abuse and mental health education are included in the 6th primary school curriculum. 6) The main contents of health education in 1st, 2nd. and 3rd grade curricula consist of treatment & recovery health functions. Those of the 4th grade curriculum consist of treatment & recovery health functions, and daily healthy life functions. Those of the 5th grade consist of growth & development functions. Those of the 6th grade consist of treatment & recovery health, growth & development functions. Most health care functions belong to physical health care. The results above suggest that we put together the divided contents of health education and manage them on the basis of systematic integration.