INVESTIGATION OF SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS’ HEALTH LITERACY LEVELS AND THEIR REFLECTION OF HEALTH LITERACY ON THEIR CLASSROOM BEHAVIOURS

Abstract

Teaching health information to students can be made possible by the fact that teachers are health literate and reflect health literacy in their classroom behaviours. Based on this idea, this study was aimed to determine the health literacy levels of social studies teachers and to obtain their opinions on the reflection of health literacy on classroom behaviours. In the research, a sequential explanatory pattern from the mixed research method was used. A total of 206 social studies teachers from different regions of Turkey and with different qualifications were included in the participant group of the study. The participant group of the study consists of two parts. The maximum diversity method was used while forming the participant group that statistical data were collected from and while forming the participant group that qualitative data were collected, volunteerism was used. The statistical data of the study were collected by using the Turkish Health Literacy Scale-32 and the qualitative data were collected by using semi-structured interview form. In the analysis of statistical data, Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test were used and content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. At the end of the research, it was concluded that the health literacy levels of social studies teachers are high. On the other hand, it was determined that the health literacy levels of social studies teachers did not differ within the scope of age, gender, education level, and region variables in which they worked. In addition, it was determined that social studies teachers have opinions that they make suggestions about health to their students, use health content in the course, check the health status of their students, and try to be a role model to their students. Recommendations were made depending on the results obtained in the study.