Browsing by Author "Keskikylä, Kiia"

Objectives. In the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education (2014) Environmental science is an integrated subject that includes the contents and objects of biology, geography, chemistry, physics and health science. Previous research on the role of health information in primary school environmental textbooks has been done marginally. The aim of this study was to find out how the objects and contents of health education appear in the books of primary school environmental science and what position health information has alongside other disciplines included in environmental science. Methods. This research was conducted as a qualitative study. The material in this study is two textbook series of environmental studies for grades 1–6, Otava's Pisara, and Sanoma Pro's Tutkimusmatka. The analysis of the data was carried out as a theory-based content analysis. Results and conclusions. The results of the study showed that the contents and objects of health information were weighted differently in different year categories. However, both textbook series largely followed the curriculum, with the exception of a few individual issues that were less or not addressed in some textbooks. Health information as a discipline appeared to primary school children on the basis of textbooks as a very concrete discipline, which was treated through the child's own daily life and related phenomena. As a surprising result, it could be considered that the discussion of the global well-being and future of mankind was mainly limited to the sixth grade. According to the conclusions, the position of health information was good in relation to other fields of information contained in environmental science, and it also appeared within other fields of information.