The Extent of Incorporating Health Education Requirements in Middle School Science Textbooks

Abstract

To ensure health sustainability for the next generation, an emphasis should be placed on health prevention and health education. Therefore, it is crucial to educate kids on how to keep themselves healthy in order to promote long-term progress. This study aimed to identify the extent of the inclusion of health education requirements in the content of science textbooks for the intermediate stage of schooling. To fulfill the goal of this study, a validated content-analysis card consisting of twenty-seven indicators categorized into seven requirement themes was used in the analysis of middle-school-level science textbook editions that were taught in the academic year 2022. The results revealed that all health education requirements were inadequately included in the science textbooks, in which the inclusion rate ranged between 5.0% and 1.3%, and the percentage of included health-related themes in the middle school science textbooks, in general, was 2.8%. These findings indicate the necessity for reforming science textbooks for middle school levels so that they include sufficient basic health education requirements to enable students to protect themselves from prevailing diseases across the globe.