Health knowledge construction and pedagogical style in Finnish health education textbooks

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to compare the construction of health knowledge in the Finnish national curriculum and recent Finnish health education textbooks, at primary and secondary levels of education. The authors examine the visual and textual content of the textbooks in an attempt to identify their pedagogical style and approach to health education.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is part of an international, European Union funded, FP6 STREP Project, Biohead‐Citizen. Conceptual health knowledge construction is analysed evaluating the emphasis placed on a biomedical model or on a health promotion ( HP) approach. Pedagogical style of the text and illustration is classified as either neutral, persuasive, participative or injunctive, out of which especially persuasive and participative reflect the constructionist approach.

Findings

The textbooks cover a wide range of health topics and meet the core contents of the national curriculum. The approach used was primarily that of HP and used a persuasive and participative approach. The pedagogical style of text, tasks and illustrations reflected current pedagogical thinking.

Research limitations/implications

The study encourages future research to explore the effects of pedagogical construction on materials and learning in health education.

Originality/value

The paper usefully analyzes the pedagogical properties of recent Finnish health knowledge textbooks.

Citation

Kosonen, A., Haapala, I., Kuurala, S., Mielonen, S., Hänninen, O. and Carvalho, G.S. (2009), "Health knowledge construction and pedagogical style in Finnish health education textbooks", Health Education, Vol. 109 No. 3, pp. 226-241. https://doi.org/10.1108/09654280910955566