How Health Education Teachers Start Their Lesson: A Qualitative Inquiry at Education Campuses of Nepal

Abstract

Introduction : Set induction is an important initial act used by the teachers to start effective classroom teaching learning. It is an integral part of general education and has been considered as producing beneficial outcomes to both teachers and students. However, in recent years, the quality of teachers training program has been questioned and there is limited evidence on if teachers are aware of set induction skills and their use in their classroom teaching. In this study, we assessed the level of knowledge in relations to skills of set induction and its’ use in real classroom teaching among the health education teachers in Education Campuses. Methods : Qualitative phenomenological research design was used to collect data from the health education teachers, involved in teaching health education for Undergraduate or Master level programs in four purposively selected districts (Dolakha, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Chitwan). Altogether 18 health education teachers participated in-depth qualitative interviews, 19 teachers’ were observed in their classroom teaching, and four Focus Group Discussions (26 teachers). The qualitative data were analyzed thematically. Findings : Findings show that most of the teachers showed some level of knowledge on pedagogical teaching that they had been using at the starting of the lessons. However, they perceived the existing knowledge inadequate. Teachers noted use of a range of strategies is essential to effective induction, such as review of previous topic, summarizing previously taught lesson, asking questions, encouraging interaction, storytelling etc. Further, the teachers emphasized the use of these sets of induction skills essential to ensure quality health education teaching learning. However, they acknowledged that there has been a big gap in using these set s of induction skills to the classroom lesson preparation and teaching. The teachers noted few reasons for such gaps, including lack of adequate teaching learning materials, insufficient time, high workload, and inadequate number of qualified health education teachers etc. Conclusion : While addressing the challenges and gaps the health education teachers have noted, there is a need for improving sets of induction skills among the health education teachers and emphasizing effective use of these skills for classroom teaching learning .