Original articleImpact of a Neuroscience-Based Health Education Course on High School Students’ Health Knowledge, Beliefs, and Behaviors
Section snippets
The present study
Our study objectives were to assess the feasibility of integrating neuroscience into high school health education and to evaluate the promise of a neuroscience-based health course as compared to thestandard health education course for a range of student outcomes using a quasi-experimental design. Primary outcomes focuson students’ awareness of the links between health behaviors and the brain, core neuroscience knowledge, growth mindset, self-monitoring and self-control, and self-efficacy for
Participants and setting
Students from two high schools in a large school district were selected based upon recommendation by district leadership and principal interest. School A had about 2,379 students during the 2014–2015 school year with about 27% of students eligible for freeor reduced price lunch. School B had an enrollment of 1,906 students during the 2014–2015 school year with about 24% of studentseligible for free or reduced price lunch, compared to the state average of 53%. Academic achievement in the two
Survey data preprocessing
We made an a priori decision to omit any survey data for which a student completed the entire battery in less than 10minutes, with the assumption that such a short response time indicated noncompliance with the survey procedures. The mean completion time was 30.5 minutes, SD = 8.1 for pretest and M = 27.5 minutes, SD = 8.4 for post-test. Post-test survey data for 15 participants were omitted from all further analyses by this criterion. No pretest survey responses met the criterion.
We also
Discussion
The goals of this pilot study were to examine the feasibility and promise of an innovative neuroscience-based health education course on a range of student outcomes. The curriculum was grounded in current developmental neuroscience and the health education literature, with an emphasis on the social-cognitive skills that promote healthy decision making such as growth mindset and self-regulation for behavior change. Evaluation of this new curriculum utilized a sample based primarily on
Acknowledgment
The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A120659 to Duke University. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education. Special thanks to the teachers, students, administrators, curriculum developers and research assistants who contributed to this study.
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Conflicts of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. During the implementation of this study,
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Dr. Murray was at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.