Spiritual_Wellness_Holistic_Health_and_the_Practic

Philosophical Trends in Health Education 87
TABLE 10.5 Health Education Philosophical Preferences in Rank Order
Reported Overall and by Group
Ranking Overall Practitioners Academicians
1 Decision-Making Decision-Making Decision-Making
2 Behavior Change Behavior Change Behavior Change
3 Social Change Social Change Freeing/Functioning
4 Freeing/Functioning Freeing/Functioning Social Change
5 Cognitive-Based Cognitive-Based Cognitive-Based
Note: 1philosophy closest to beliefs
5philosophy least like beliefs
educational choices were noted between academicians and practitioners, which represented
health educators making very different choices given the same options.
Practitioners tended to make educational decisions that favor behavior change or
social change . This suggested that in the educational setting, practitioners were more
aware of or more focused on change as something to work toward. Academicians ’
decisions reflected freeing/functioning educational principles, which promote learners
’ choice and self - directedness. These findings reflect well what one would anticipate
the differences between the two types of health educators represented in this
sample to be.
In stark contrast, analysis of the rank order exercise found that health educators
professed identical philosophical beliefs. Both practitioners and academicians listed
decision - making and behavior change philosophy as first and second preferences.
These similarities are striking. The emergence of two distinct groups of health educators,
namely, SOPHE and the Association for the Advancement of Health Education
(AAHE), developed historically in different ways in different settings. Practitioners
and academicians tend to perceive themselves as very different. This study suggested
contrary evidence, that these two groups of health educators agree on important fundamental
issues: the purpose of health education, role of teacher and learner, and educational
methodologies.
Decision - making philosophy mirrors principles that health educators believe are
of primary importance. Decision - making philosophy encompasses problem - solving,
lifelong learning, pragmatic knowledge, and inductive methodologies (Elias &
Merriam, 1980; Kittleson & Ragon, 1993). These philosophical beliefs were not