Effectiveness of Three Approaches to College Health Instruction*

The investigation was conducted to determine the relative effectiveness of three different approaches to health instruction at the college level. Each of three groups of students was taught by one instructional approach: problem solving, lecture, or discussion. Analysis of initial and final measurements of health knowledge, health attitudes, and health interests through the covariance technique and t tests indicated that all three approaches were equally effective in the achievement of instructional outcomes. Educators are perennially confronted with the problem of selecting an instructional approach most favorable to the achievement of certain educational objectives, and educational theorists have produced considerable writing on the subject. The merits of a particular approach are convincingly presented, but may be in conflict with equally convincing arguments cited to recommend a different approach. Proponents of the various techniques frequently bast their beliefs upon subjective, personal observations or the conclusions of other teachers with similar experiences rather than upon objective evidence which indicates the relative effectiveness of the various approaches at specific educational levels. The classroom teacher must either accept this type of empirical judgement or seek objective information on the best approach to use in a given situation. The literature pertaining to the methodology of health instruction increasingly appears to emphasize the desirability of using the problem solving and/or discussion approaches. Proponents of these approaches state that they not only effectively increase health knowledge but also have the added advantage of favorably influencing attitudinal development and health interests. Yet it appears that for the most part, college health instruction continues to follow the traditional lecture approach. Advocates of the lecture method point out that the major objective in college health instruction is to increase health knowledge and therefore the teacher-centered lecture approach is most favorable for attaining the particular objectives at this educational level. Many of the discussions describing attempts to resolve these conflicting viewpoints present observations made in essentially uncontrolled situations (l, 10, 12) and/or in the investigation of a single approach (2, 4, 5) or from generalization drawn from related studies (1, 8, 11, 13). Such work is recognized as a valuable contribution to improve health instruction at all educational levels, but a comparative analysis of the results of certain recommended approaches applied under controlled conditions would yield evidence as to their relative effectiveness. * The Research Quarterly, 1962,33: 129-135. Health educators have generally recognized the urgent need for classroom research which will yield valid evidence basic to the improvement of health instruction. This study should help to illustrate classroom research which can be conducted by health instructors, thus contributing toward needed research methodology in health education. The purpose of this program, therefore, was to investigate the relative effectiveness of three selected approaches problem-solving, discussion, and lecture to the health instruction of undergraduate college students in order to identify an approach, or approaches, which may be favored by the analysis of the data. Each approach was investigated as to its effect upon health knowledge, health attitudes, and health interests held by college students.