Summary of the Teaching Plan
The main purpose of the given teaching plan is to provide a concept of sexually transmitted diseases, their types, routes of transmission, pathogens, and signs and methods of prevention. In addition, it aims at instilling and forming personal hygiene skills and an understanding among students that only the right way of life and behavior are a guarantee of risk prevention.
The purpose of the lesson:
- To provide students with the necessary knowledge about the problem of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and personal responsibility for their behavior.
- To prevent the spread of STDs among students.
Tasks:
- To show that the main causes of the spread of STDs are hazardous behavioral practices, including drug use and unsafe sex.
- To provide students with information in an accessible form, that gives a detailed idea of what an STD is through a video presentation.
- To teach adolescents to bind together their knowledge, awareness of the degree of risk and behavior.
- To form the motivation to maintain their health and the health of their partner, including responsible sexual behavior.
Expected Result:
- students will be aware of the need to combat the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
- students will understand the importance of educating young people about the problems associated with STDs.
- students will feel responsible for their health and the health of those around them.
Preparatory work for the lesson:
- The selection of material and the creation of a video presentation on the problem of the teaching process.
- Music for the musical accompaniment of the video presentation and training.
- The selection of practices and tests for working with students.
The Epidemiological Rationale for Topic
The primary epidemiological rationale is based on the fact that people, especially young ones, do not possess enough knowledge to be aware of various STDs. Despite significant advances in medicine, the group of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) retains a high rating in the structure of the causes of infertility. These include preterm birth, congenital pathology, developmental abnormalities, which are significantly affecting the reproductive health of the population, and negatively regulating the demographic situation (Falasinnu et al., 2015). The implementation of government programs aimed at preventing the spread of STIs. Treatment and the introduction of modern diagnostic methods have significantly reduced the incidence of STIs, but its rates remain at a fairly high level among both the adult population and young people (Falasinnu et al., 2015). Currently, the issues of reproductive health of the community in general and the younger generation, in particular, have acquired strategic national importance.
Young people, being an active part of society, have an exceptional impact on social sectors, the economy, and health care, and the risks to its health have long-term consequences. Teens are tomorrow’s adults and investing in their reproductive health is important, as it is a contribution to the future. Adolescents receive information about the intimate side of life from several sources, such as the Internet, television, the media, and literature (Meyerson et al., 2019). The largest percentage of distorted information young people receive from each other. Admission to medical institutions is very low due to fear of disclosure of visits, and hostility of medical workers (Besera et al., 2016). Teenagers do not make confidential contact with the teacher because of peers who notice an unusually long conversation between the teacher and the student (Falasinnu et al., 2015). Then young people make their own decisions, which leads to neglected chronic diseases and unwanted childbirth in this segment of adolescence.
Enlightenment of the problems of spirituality, morality, and not contraception is highly important (Besera et al., 2016). Schoolchildren and their parents are the main source of information and care about sexuality, and teachers blame the adolescent on health, offering him/her to take care of his/her health. Moreover, no one seeks to provide youth with the necessary knowledge for this. Unfortunately, many parents do not have enough experience to give the correct answers to the questions of their growing children (Falasinnu et al., 2015). As for medical workers, they are often not ready to provide information on the sexual education of a teenager at school, as they are not competent (Falasinnu et al., 2015). The next important factor is the lack of contact with adolescents.
Evaluation of Teaching Experience
The overall evaluation process will include both educators and students to widen the scope of analysis. A teacher should be prepared to give accurate and clear answers to students’ questions, as well as to have the ability to respond in a timely and correct manner to any specific moments. The most profound impact of the teaching staff on the nature of inter-sexual relations directly in the school is an important and necessary element of the sex education system. When carrying out sex education, it is also essential to take into account national religious, and regional specifics. Gender issues should be addressed in close connection with health issues (Uhrig, Friedman, Poehlman, Scales, & Forsythe, 2014). It is necessary to use modern advancements in personal hygiene and body care to maintain and enhance health, including reproductive health.
The school’s activities in the field of sex education should be carried out in connection with the work of special centers having the nature of counseling and social assistance for adolescents. Students should be familiar with such centers and the quality of their work and be prepared, if necessary, to take advantage of their help. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 300 million cases of sexually transmitted infections are recorded each year in the world (Falasinnu et al., 2015). The highest incidence of STIs is observed in the group of 20-21-year-old, then 15-19-year-old people (Meyerson et al., 2019). Thus, the overall evaluation process aims to analyze and overview the amount of knowledge comprehended.
Community Response to Teaching
There major expected community responses to the teaching process because not all parents and students are willing to discuss the risks of STDs and it is a highly delicate topic. There are no official statistics that could confidently demonstrate the impact of sex education in the United States. That is why almost 60 years after the introduction of the lessons, a large number of opponents of the program remain in the country. They argue that sex education violates traditional values and corrupts children’s minds (Besera et al., 2016). A more specific problem is also being raised: each school applies its sex education methodology. As a result, children from different states or just from neighboring streets after graduation have radically different ideas about sex and their bodies.
However, some statistics indirectly confirm the impact of the lessons. Since 1986, when the main investment in sexuality education began, the number of abortions among girls from 15 to 19 years decreased by 2015 from 52 per thousand to 22 per thousand (Uhrig et al., 2014). In every state and school, sexuality education programs are distinguished by small details. For example, in the eastern United States, most states require schools not only to conduct lessons on the sexual aspects of life but also to learn how to use contraception properly (Uhrig et al., 2014). In the southern part of the country this is often not required, including in Texas, where according to the data for 2015, the highest abortion rate among schoolchildren in the country was registered (Meyerson et al., 2019). Before the development of mass technologies, short documentaries were shown in the lessons, where actors educated the young. In the lower grades, teachers invited children to write questions on sexual topics so that they could answer them together (Meyerson et al., 2019). In most states, they attempted to present educational videos neutrally, without setting conditions for students, but only trying to explain what sex is and how it works.
Areas of Strengths and Areas of Improvement
The major strength lies in the fact that the teaching program possesses a strong evaluation process, which ensures that every student completes the course with the required amount of knowledge. Regardless of the profession of the representative that is teaching the course, a necessary condition for the high effectiveness of the program is a holistic approach, carried out on a single conceptual basis (Besera et al., 2016). As practice shows, attempts to assign sexual education to a family are unsuccessful due to the low sex culture and pedagogical unpreparedness of the parents themselves.
In addition, the work of educational institutions without contact with the families of students will be ineffective, since it is in the family that the basic characteristics of the child are laid down and formed. Thus, the need for interaction between the family and educational organizations as institutions that have the most powerful effect on the gender-role socialization of the child is obvious. At the macro-social level, it is necessary to develop a unified conceptual framework and coordinate strategies and tactics for working with the younger generation of all socialization institutions (Uhrig et al., 2014). A comprehensive interdisciplinary approach is also necessary as a method of educational practice. It consists of the involvement of specialists in various fields in working with children and their microsocial environment your professional contribution to the solution of unified educational preventive and correctional tasks.
The biggest area for improvement lies in the notion of fear, which parents might possess. A typical mistake of parents and teachers is an underestimation of the real level of interests and knowledge of children and adolescents (Uhrig et al., 2014). Fearing to “corrupt” the children and force the awakening of their erotic sexual interests, adults avoid the conversations about sex education. In addition to the generally conservative and protective attitude of the older generation, the monopoly on knowledge is one of the ways to maintain their power. In addition, many parents are painfully experiencing puberty as a reminder of their aging, which affects intergenerational differences in the rate of maturation and sexual moral standards.
Conclusion
In conclusion, sexual reproductive health is an integral part of human health in general. This is one of the conditions of the normal, harmonious functioning of man in society. Therefore, it is important to ensure adolescent health, which is the foundation of the economic prosperity of the state, its demographics, and creative potential. The given program is a call to society, in particular to parents and decision-makers, to look at adolescent reproductive illiteracy as a problem and see the solution, which is to educate them.
References
Besera, G. T., Cox, S., Malotte, C. K., Rietmeijer, C. A., Klausner, J. D., O’Donnell, L., … Warner, L. (2016). Assessing patient exposure to a video-based intervention in STD clinic waiting rooms: Findings from the safe in the city trial. Health Promotion Practice, 17(5), 731-738.
Falasinnu, T., Gilbert, M., Hottes, T. S., Gustafson, P., Ogilvie, G., & Shoveller, J. (2015). Predictors identifying those at increased risk for STDs: A theory-guided review of empirical literature and clinical guidelines. International Journal of STD & AIDS, 26(12), 839-851.
Meyerson, B. E., Davis, A., Reno, H., Haderxhanaj, L. T., Sayegh, M. A., Simmons, M. K., … Stoner, B. P. (2019). Existence, distribution, and characteristics of STD clinics in the United States, 2017. Public Health Reports, 134(4), 371-378.
Uhrig, J. D., Friedman, A., Poehlman, J., Scales, M., & Forsythe, A. (2014). Knowledge, beliefs and behaviours related to STD risk, prevention, and screening among a sample of African American men and women. Health Education Journal, 73(3), 332-340.