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Study Guide

Field 073: Health Education

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Sample Selected-Response Questions

Competency 0001 
Health Promotion

1. During a nutrition lesson in an upper elementary class, a student tells the teacher that she really wants to improve her eating habits, but needs concrete suggestions on how to make nutritious choices. Other students echo this request. The teacher and students agree to list in a journal all of the foods and beverages that they eat and drink on each of the next four days. Then, they bring their food journals to class. Which teaching strategy would be most effective to use next in helping students to improve their eating habits?

  1. showing students how to use the  U S D A's  ChooseMyPlate Web site and its tools to compare the information in their food journals to dietary recommendations for their age group, find tips for making informed food choices, and set individualized nutrition goals
  2. asking students to review their food journals and estimate how much time they spent doing moderate to vigorous physical activities each day, then teaching them how to use calories consumed and calories expended to calculate energy balances
  3. guiding students in creating a nutrition-related wiki about what they learned while maintaining their food journals, and working with the school librarian to develop an annotated bibliography of age-appropriate nutrition resources
  4. familiarizing students with commercial media and tools, such as online body mass index ( B M I ) calculators, that evaluate body composition, as well as offer strategies for improving body composition through diet
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Correct Response: A. This item requires examinees to apply knowledge of appropriate nutritional and dietary planning tools, guidelines, and recommendations, as well as principles and strategies for interpreting nutritional facts and labels. The interactive ChooseMyPlate Web site provides students with information about the nutritional values of the foods and beverages they consume, as well as nutritional recommendations and caloric requirements for their age, gender, and activity levels. Activities, information pages, and interactive tools provide guidelines for healthful eating and setting nutritional goals, making appropriate food choices and planning balanced meals, and tracking and monitoring efforts toward achieving personal nutrition and physical activity goals.

Competency 0001 
Health Promotion

2. Compared to infants and young children who have received standard immunizations recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( C D C ), children who have not been immunized are more likely to be susceptible to which illness?

  1. Epstein-Barr virus
  2. streptococcal pharyngitis
  3. tuberculosis
  4. pneumococcal infection
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Correct Response: D. This item requires examinees to analyze personal, social, cultural, economic, genetic, and environmental risk factors that increase or decrease susceptibility to illness and disease. Children who receive routine immunizations according to recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( C D C ), including the pneumococcal vaccine, are much less susceptible to infectious diseases. The  C D C  recommends immunization with the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for all children younger than 2 years; this young population is one of those most at risk for developing serious pneumococcal infections. The vaccine, known as  P C V 13 , protects against 13 types of pneumococcal bacteria that can cause severe illness, including pneumonia, blood infections, and bacterial meningitis. The vaccine also helps prevent some ear infections.

Competency 0002 
Risk Reduction

3. Which strategy is likely to be the most effective in helping students learn how to prevent and minimize sexual health risks?

  1. teaching students refusal and resistance skills and the role that the use of alcohol and other drugs plays in sexual risk taking, and working with them to reinforce these skills and knowledge
  2. defining and presenting to students the development of sexual health as distinct from physical, intellectual, social, and emotional development
  3. encouraging students to research and report on ways in which teenage sexuality is portrayed in television, film, and other media and determine whether the portrayals are realistic or unrealistic
  4. presenting students with current national health risk statistics on the prevalence of STIs among teenagers and asking students to create posters that incorporate the statistics
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Correct Response: A. This item requires examinees to demonstrate knowledge of principles, practices, and strategies for promoting sexual health and for preventing and minimizing sexual health risks, including unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections ( S T Is ). Effective health education teaching practices include introducing and explaining important skills for avoiding risk behaviors, presenting steps for developing the skills, modeling the skills, and providing students with opportunities to rehearse and practice the skills in realistic scenarios. When students are prepared for the realities of sexual health-related situations and choices, they are able to make sound decisions and use refusal and resistance techniques to avoid and prevent health and safety risks. Role-playing and other student-centered, interactive, and experiential activities help students to learn about the pressures, attitudes, values, and behaviors that influence health as they develop the skills and confidence needed to address these factors.

Competency 0002 
Risk Reduction

4. During an elementary school open house at the beginning of the year, a brief presentation is made to students' families. This presentation highlights a display of student artwork showing safety behaviors, such as using a seat belt, looking before crossing a street, and wearing a helmet when bicycling. Which subject would be most appropriate to emphasize to families, in conjunction with the display?

  1. influences on children's safety, such as living conditions and whether parents/guardians discuss safety risks with their children
  2. societal expectations related to the protection of children's health and safety
  3. simple stress-management and coping strategies that parents/guardians can try with their children in order to ease daily pressures
  4. the importance of modeling safe behaviors and praising children when they demonstrate the behaviors
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Correct Response: D. This item requires examinees to demonstrate knowledge of techniques and criteria for recognizing risks and unsafe conditions in the home, school, and community; and principles and strategies for promoting safety and advocating for self and others. In this situation, the most appropriate topic to emphasize to families is the importance of modeling and praising children for safety behaviors. Simply put, modeling safe behaviors for children promotes children's use of the same behaviors. Children often learn best from imitating the actions of others, specifically the actions of role models such as parents/guardians and older family members. By providing children with praise and positive attention when they demonstrate safety strategies, parents/guardians communicate their expectations for responsible and safe behavior as well as the value and importance they place on children's well-being.

Competency 0003 
Personal and Social Health Skills

5. According to research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( C D C ), a student who feels connected to his or her school is less likely to engage in risk behaviors. Which factor has been shown to specifically increase school connectedness?

  1. being enrolled in a large school with a diverse student population
  2. attending a charter or magnet school rather than a traditional public school
  3. belonging to a positive peer group within the school community
  4. attending a school that publicizes and enforces a stringent student code of conduct
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Correct Response: C. This item requires examinees to demonstrate knowledge of relationship management skills, characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships, and the importance of caring relationships and social support systems for promoting health and wellness. In School Connectedness: Strategies for Increasing Protective Factors Among Youth ( C D C  and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2009), school connectedness is defined as "the belief by students that adults and peers in the school care about their learning as well as about them as individuals." When the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health studied the influence of protective factors on adolescent health and well-being among more than 36,000 middle and high school students, school connectedness was found to afford strong protection against a range of adverse behaviors. One important predictor of school connectedness is belonging to a positive peer group. In particular, a stable network of peers is highly correlated with improved student perceptions of school. Students who have active, fulfilling social lives within the school setting feel valued as individuals and are more likely to engage in positive behaviors and succeed academically.

Competency 0003 
Personal and Social Health Skills

6. During a middle school health education lesson, the teacher provides students with a worksheet for evaluating personal health risks. The worksheet asks students to identify three personal activities or situations that increase the likelihood of injury, illness, or other negative health outcomes. The worksheet directs students to then answer the following two questions about each personal health risk.

Which additional question or questions would be most appropriate to add to the list in order to make the evaluation of personal health risks a more meaningful learning tool for students?

  1. When did each health risk first become a part of your life?
  2. Could you tell your friends and family about one of your health risks? How?
  3. How could you change one thing that you have control over to reduce a health risk?
  4. What is your best estimate of the financial costs of each health risk? Are the risks worth it?
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Correct Response: C. This item requires examinees to demonstrate knowledge of characteristics and purposes of reliable self-assessment tools, and criteria and techniques for examining and evaluating personal health behaviors, health risks, and the consequences of positive and negative health choices. The question that would be most appropriate to ask to make the evaluation more meaningful is, "How could you change one thing that you have control over to reduce a health risk?" In the context of this activity, the teacher should emphasize that a personal health risk evaluation helps increase students' awareness of lifestyle factors that increase or decrease the risk of disease and injury. Lifestyle factors such as those related to nutrition, physical activity, reproductive health, and substance use are typically factors over which individuals have control; these factors can be modified or more effectively controlled to improve and enhance health. After identifying three personal health risks and determining to what extent each health risk is controllable, students can determine how to enact a behavioral change or choice that will reduce their susceptibility to a health or safety issue.

Competency 0004 
Health Literacy Skills

7. Many healthy U.S. adolescents report unhappiness with their bodies. Which factors are widely considered to be significant influences on poor body image perceptions among healthy adolescents?

  1. lack of knowledge about activity and nutritional requirements for adolescents, and apprehension about experiencing the pubertal growth spurt later than peers
  2. popular media that present idealized standards of attractiveness, and societal and cultural expectations that equate youthful beauty with happiness and success
  3. pressures from same-sex peers to conform to the latest fashion and lifestyle trends favored by celebrities, popular musicians, and elite athletes
  4. sensationalized media stories about individuals with eating disorders and resulting fears about developing similar disorders
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Correct Response: B. This item requires examinees to recognize ways in which family, peers, technology, media, culture, and social norms influence attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors related to health. Research studies conducted in the United States report a high correlation between time spent by youth watching television, movies, and music videos and their degree of body dissatisfaction. Thousands of advertisements  for example  for clothes, cosmetics, muscle builders, weight reduction products contain messages about physical attractiveness and beauty, and researchers have found that advertising that targets teenagers negatively affects their self-esteem by setting unrealistic expectations for them about physical appearance. For young males, the ideal is a lean, muscular, V-shaped body; according to research, the current media ideal of thinness for young women is met by only about five percent of the population. Ongoing exposure to these idealized media images can shape and distort a young person's perceptions of reality and his or her self-image.

Competency 0004 
Health Literacy Skills

8. Which statement best explains why media messages about adolescent sexual activity can be particularly problematic for adolescents?

  1. The messages are nearly always framed in a positive light with little or no discussion of potential risks or adverse consequences.
  2. Adolescents have no access to credible, age-appropriate information about sexual activity, other than what they see presented in the media.
  3. The messages focus almost exclusively on sexual activity within long-term relationships, while most adolescents report having few long-term relationships.
  4. Adolescents are not yet developmentally capable of critically analyzing and evaluating complex media messages about sexual activity.
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Correct Response: A. This item requires examinees to analyze ways in which various forms of media communicate different types of messages to children and adolescents about topics such as nutrition, body image, sexual activity, tobacco and alcohol, and violence. Exposure to sexually explicit content in television, movies, social media, and music influences adolescents' sexual attitudes and behavior. Studies have shown that the more teens are exposed to inaccurate and uncensored sexual images and messages, the more likely they are to have unprotected sex at an earlier age. Yet there is little or no discussion in the popular media of the consequences of unprotected sex. One in four U.S. teens contract a sexually transmitted infection ( S T I ) each year, and the U.S. teen pregnancy rate remains higher than in other industrialized nations. Sexually explicit media that both features and targets youth must be acknowledged as key contributors to these negative consequences of unprotected sex.

Competency 0005 
Health Education Program Planning

9. A health education teacher asks high school students to choose a safety topic and develop a catchy, health-enhancing promotional message about that topic for a particular target audience. The teacher provides the following examples to students.

The teacher plans to have students share their completed messages with their target audiences. This activity is likely to be most effective for fostering students' knowledge and skills in relation to which National Health Education Standard?

  1. Students will analyze the influence of family, peers, culture, media, technology, and other factors on health behaviors.
  2. Students will demonstrate the ability to use goal-setting skills to enhance health.
  3. Students will demonstrate the ability to advocate for personal, family, and community health.
  4. Students will demonstrate the ability to use interpersonal communication skills to enhance health and avoid or reduce health risks.
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Correct Response: C. This item requires examinees to recognize principles and methods for planning and implementing effective and comprehensive health education programs, including knowledge and use of the New York State Learning Standards for Health and the National Health Education Standards to support student learning. Researching and creating the content of a promotional message about a safety topic encourages students to consider, formulate, and communicate informed perspectives and accurate health information and ideas. Developing a message for peers or younger students increases students' awareness of the relevance of health promotion to their daily lives, fosters their skills in adapting health messages and communication techniques to the characteristics of a particular audience, and enhances their ability to influence and support others in making positive health choices. This type of assignment also provides students with valuable practice in using various communication skills to express feelings and opinions about health issues and to work individually and cooperatively to advocate for personal, family, and community health.

Competency 0005 
Health Education Program Planning

10. Small groups of health education students are working with the problem-solving model below in order to examine health-related issues in a step-by-step way.

  1. Clarify the problem and decide whether it is worth solving.
  2. Affirm your ability to solve the problem.
  3. Gather information about the problem.
  4. Clarify obstacles and identify possible solutions.
  5. Try out the solution with the greatest chance of success.
  6. Evaluate the solution, and if it does not work, try another one.

Which strategy would be best used in conjunction with step 3 to solve a health-related problem they may encounter?

  1. suggesting strategies that might resolve the problem and considering barriers to implementing each strategy
  2. comparing the advantages and disadvantages of using various strategies to resolve the problem
  3. identifying resources needed to solve the problem and ways to utilize or obtain these resources
  4. working through various solutions and adjusting the goal of the problem-solving process, as necessary
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Correct Response: C. This item requires examinees to recognize ways to foster students' application of critical-thinking, problem-solving, goal-setting, and decision-making skills to health-related issues and problems. In this scenario, small groups of students are using a problem-solving approach to analyze hypothetical health-related issues. In steps 1 and 2, students typically clarify a health-related problem, determine its relevance to personal goals and values, and examine the feasibility of personally solving the problem. In step 3, students should gather information about the problem, including exploring any particular issues or concerns about the problem and identifying the types of potential resources needed (e.g., skills, people, time, energy and effort, supplies). After gathering information about the problem and identifying potential resources needed, students can then assess potential barriers to implementing various solutions.