Principles of Health Education b.ed notes

 

What are the principles of Health Education? 

Principles of Health Education

Health education is the need of the hour. Health education can be made accessible to all people only through teaching and learning. Psychologists have recognized that health education can be given a new direction through the process of learning and memory. Every person learns something or the other in his lifetime and his life-behavior is governed on the basis of what he learnt.

Training is an ongoing process between the teacher and the student. As long as the learner is not ready, he does not find anything instructive and exemplary. This process of learning and teaching is not limited only to the school, but this effort is also made by the society and the family. 

Under the health education program, the community is awakened by creating awareness about health so that people can protect themselves from common health problems. 

Under this, certain principles were followed by educationists, which are as follows-

1. Interest- 

Psychologists believe that most of the public does not take seriously those things in which they are not interested. This is the reason that there is a lack of awareness towards health. It is the duty of the officers or employees providing health education to first create interest in health programs among the public. Find out what are the expectations of the public regarding health, then policies and programs should be formulated so that the health education program can be successful. No work done without the interest of the common man can be successful, therefore it is necessary to awaken the interest.

 

2. Participation - 

The process of learning is effective only when the person is active and ready for some work. In health education programme, efforts are made to make health education successful by organizing programs like group discussion, expert discussion, workshop etc. The greater participation of the public in these programs shows that how conscious the general public is about health. This awareness gives success to health education programs.

3. Communication - 

Language is important for easy transmission of education from one person to another. Most of the people who have either very low or medium level of education are included in the health education program. Therefore, while giving training to such people, special care should be taken that the language style should be at the level of those people so that there is no difficulty in explaining. If the language style is higher than these people, then they will not be able to take advantage of health programs. The success of such a program is possible only with proper communication.

4. Motivation:

Everyone wants to learn something or the other. The only difference is that in some this desire is awakened and in some it is not awakened. People who have a latent desire to learn have to be stimulated through motivation. 

Motivation is also of two types:

1. Primary, like hunger, sex drive, desire to live life, 

2. Secondary, like competition, rewards, praise, punishment etc. 

 

It does not require much effort to awaken primary motivations, while special methods have to be resorted to for secondary motivation. If a person who consumes gutka is stopped by saying 'this is a bad thing, it should not be eaten', then there will be no effect on him. But when he is told in detail about the diseases that have happened to the people who consume gutkha and the same fate will befall him, then it will have an immediate effect on him and he will become aware of his health.

5. Intellectual level – 

A lot of information is obtained from education. But before giving it is necessary to have clarity about the intellectual level of the receiving group. It is necessary for the teacher to know that those who are being taught by him, in what form, to what level, they are able to accept the teaching material. If the concerned person is not able to accept what is taught, then the effort to teach him will be futile. Therefore, before starting the health education program, it is necessary to know the intellectual level of the target people so that knowledge can be imparted to them according to their level.