Explaining the methods of health education in primary school from the experiences of education and health education specialists: Phenomenological study

Students are one of the major human resources of any society and paying attention to their health education is considered as an investment for the future especially in elementary school. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to specify the experience of educational training and health education professionals in identifying health education methods in primary education.

 This was a qualitative research in 2019 based on the interpretive model and was conducted using phenomenological method. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 15 health education and training professionals who met the inclusion criteria. Colaizzi method was used to analyze the interview data.

In order to analyze the data, Max QDA software was used.Findings include 2 main components of "direct and indirect teaching method" and 17 minor components. group discussion, question and answer, work unit (project), role-based teaching method, laboratory teaching method, game-based teaching method, field trips or extracurricular experimental activity, process teaching method, probe teaching method, creativity-based teaching method, storytelling, problem solving, use of visual and auditory resources,, conference, lecture, explanatory teaching method and educational help books.

Field trips and extracurricular activities are effective teaching methods in elementary school. Therefore, planning and paying attention to the formulation and implementation of health education curricula should be taken into consideration by the methods of academic circulation and extracurricular activities.