中国の子どもたちのための健康教育教材(副読本)の開発

抄録

In China, the rapid economic progress has caused large disparities between rich and poor areas in many aspects. Focusing on the gap in health education at the compulsory education stage, we have surveyed the means to eliminate such educational differentials. Based on data which are published by the Chinese Government and interviews with Chinese children, students and teachers in Japan, we analyzed the current state of the health education. From these analyses it became clear that the essential problem was a lack of appropriate textbooks in this field. To solve this problem, we developed 4 kinds of teaching materials: Human Body, Infectious Diseases, Foods and Nutrition, and Water. With the cooperation of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), we then visited the Association of Science and Education in Changchun, Jilin Province, and a number of schools, in order to assess the effectiveness of our educational materials. The results of a questionnaire to junior high school students, and interviews with teachers, show that health education classes were not provided sufficiently. In addition, our educational materials apparently helped to improve students' understanding.