Research Showcase
Mary Immaculate College,
3rd September 2013
 SPHE
(Primary) 1999
 SPHE
(Post-Primary) 2000
 Rationale
for SPHE
 Current Context
 Research Findings
 Recommendations
26% of 9-year olds have a raised BMI (Growing
Up in Ireland, 2012)
 Increased incidence of mental health problems
among young people
(UNICEF, Ireland, 2011)
 23% of 9-16 year olds have experienced
bullying, either online or offline.
(O’Neill and Dinh, 2013)
 Age of first sexual encounters has dropped
(Mayock et al, 2007)
 High rates of alcohol consumption among
adolescents (although this is decreasing)
(ESPAD, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011).


“SPHE is very important because it covers loads of
subjects and it teaches you loads about life. We learn
more about other people and what happens when we
grow up. It allows us to be different. It helps us to have
better relationships, better friends and to be yourself.
It helps us to make decisions and realise the
consequences. It helps us to take care of ourselves and
to know what to do” (DES, 2009).
“I would like to know more about emotional health
especially before my exams”
 “I would like to learn more about stress and what
happens”
 [SPHE could be used] “to focus on making
important decisions, for example, if you thought a
classmate was unhappy…and how you would deal
with this sort of situation” (O’Higgins et al, 2007)
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“…an effective school health programme can be one of
the most cost effective investments a nation can make
to simultaneously improve education and health”
(www.who.int/school_youth_health/en/)
School health programmes are promoted as “a
strategic means to prevent important health risks
among youth and to engage the education sector in
efforts to change the educational, social, economic and
political conditions that affect risk” (ibid)
 Increased
focus on Literacy and
Numeracy
 Time allocation
 Not formalised at Senior Cycle
 Not an exam subject
 Sensitive nature of material
 Teacher confidence and capacity
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In most education systems there has been relative neglect of
health education when compared with more traditional academic
education (Fullan, 2001)
Debate in Germany in relation to educational reform is notably
lacking in references to health promotion (Paulus, 2005)
In France, it has been found that schools set a low priority on
health education (Do & Alluin, 2002, cited by Jourdan et al, 2011).
School Health Policy and Practice Study (USA) demonstrated that
while there were positive developments in relation to the
recognition of health education at state and district level, this did
not necessarily translate into implementation (Kann L, Brener ND,
Wechsler H., 2007)
Concrete action in schools difficult to initiate (Norway)(Samdal,
1999).
Impact of local context: choices made by schools and students
(Samdal, 1999; Tjomsland et al., 2009).
 Undertaken
with pre-service primary
school teachers (2012)
 Extension of similar project undertaken
with pre-service post-primary teachers
in 2010 and presented in 2012 (Mannix
McNamara et al, 2012)
 Theory
of Planned Behaviour
 Mixed-methods
approach: survey and
focus group
 Approved by MIC research ethics board
 Sample size 200, (convenience sample)
 Piloted with 20 students
 165
responses to survey
 74% (122) female; 26% (43) male
 Age Profile: 90% 18-19yrs

10% 20+ yrs
Statement
N
Strongly
Agree
Unsure
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Agree
(%)
(%)
(%)
(%)
(%)
I am interested in SPHE
163
8
68
17
7
0
I enjoyed SPHE at
159
13
62
12
12
0.5
165
24
60
13
2
0
161
4
34
27
30
5
150
4
23
25
35
13
159
5
43
17
29
6
school
I believe that SPHE is a
relevant curricular area
I learnt a lot from the
SPHE class
SPHE was taught very
well in my primary
school
SPHE was taught very
well in my post-primary
school
Statement
N
Strongly
Agree
Unsure
Disagree
agree
There was a whole school approach
Strongly
Disagree
152
2
13
31
41
13
156
5
24
26
40
5
165
30
61
7
1
0.5
162
29
44
14
11
2
162
15
36
27
19
3
165
22
56
19
3
0
to teaching SPHE in my primary
school
There was a whole-school approach
to teaching SPHE in my postprimary school
I believe that SPHE is beneficial for
students
The fact that there is no exam in
SPHE at post-primary level is an
advantage to the subject
SPHE should be mandatory in
schools to Leaving Certificate level
I look forward to teaching SPHE on
leaving college
SPHE Aspect
Proportion ranked in
top 3 (1,2 or 3)
Proportion ranked in
bottom 3 (8,9,or 10)
Belonging and Integrating
38%
29%
Relationships and Sexuality
31%
20%
Substance Use
25%
38%
Influences and Decisions
23%
37%
Personal Safety
34%
26%
Communications Skills
23%
34%
Emotional Health
55%
15%
Friendship
22%
30%
Physical Health
37%
22%
Self-management: A Sense of
Purpose
14%
46%
 Five
in sample
 All female
 Little recall of primary school experience
 Comments mainly based upon postprimary experience
 Content:
Body Image
Eating disorders
Bullying
Hygiene
RSE
Drugs education
“a lot of it was common sense”
“at the time we probably thought that you were too cool
for it…you were able for something more”
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All agreed that SPHE was available in 1st/2nd and 3rd
year of post-primary school
4 students stated that SPHE did not always take place
when it was scheduled
Group viewed SPHE as interesting
Seen as “a break”
Queried methodology: “you don’t want to be reading
the text book…you’d rather join a conversation” “you
don’t have to write…you can say it out…”
Lack of structure: “you could be doing one thing one
week and onto the next thing the following week”
A number of concerns:
 Lack of experience of SPHE to date:
impact on confidence and ability to teach
 Lack of knowledge
 Impact of social context
 Interests/responses of the children: “…it
depends on if they respond or not”
 Positive
attitudes: 84% see relevance of SPHE,
91% see SPHE as beneficial to students,78%
looking forward to teaching SPHE
 Subjective norms: qualitative data demonstrates
potentially negative subjective norms
 Perceived behavioural control: Teacher
confidence, lack of knowledge, pupil responses
emerged as barriers to perceived behavioural
control.
 Three
broad themes:
 Increasing
 Specific
the recognition of the subject
topics that should be addressed
 Resources
and teaching methods
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More active approach to learning: “very interactive…with a group”
“conversation more than reading from a text book or work sheet”
Planned according to the needs of a particular class: “if they had a
class at the start of the year to figure out what was relevant to that
class…instead of sticking to a text book…in one class bullying might
be an issue…and in another, relationships might be an issue”.
More structure: “it needs more structure…it seemed to be just
mixed in at random every week, you know”
Divided opinion about making SPHE an exam subject: “it may be
viewed more seriously if there was an exam at the end”/ “a lot of it is
kind of opinions…so it’s going to be very hard to say that’s right or
that’s wrong”
 Appointment
of SPHE co-ordinator in every
school
 Implemented whole school and community
approach
 Located within the broader context of the
Health Promoting School
 More designated time to SPHE
 More acknowledgement of teachers’ needs
 Mandatory SPHE qualifications at postprimary level
 “on
teaching SPHE, one needs confidence,
knowledge and also the where-with-all to
understand the frailty of the situation.
These are skills we need to obtain”
(qualitative statement in student survey, September 2012)
 Thanks
to Eva Devaney, Health Promotion
Advisor, Mary Immaculate College, for her
assistance with this research.
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Ajzen, I. (1991). “The Theory of Planned Behaviour”. Organisational Behavior and Human Decision
Processes, Vol. 50, pp. 179-211.
Department of Education and Skills (2009). Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) in the Primary
School. www.education.ie
ESRI/TCD/Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). Growing up in
Ireland: National Longitudinal Study of Children. Dublin: Stationery Office. www.growingup.ie
Fullan, M. (2001). The New Meaning of Educational Change. New York: Teachers’ College Press.
Hibell, B. et al (2001, 2005, 2009, 2013) . The 1999, 2003, 2007, 2013 ESPAD Reports. Stockholm: Swedish
Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs. www.espad.org
Jourdan, D., Stirling, J., Mannix McNamara, P.& Pommier, J. (2011). “The influence of professional factors
in determining primary school teachers’ commitment to health promotion”. Health Promotion
International,Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 302-310. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mayock, P. , Kitching , K. and Morgan, M. (2007). RSE in the context of SPHE: An Assessment of the
Challenges to Full Implementation of the Programme in Post-Primary Schools. Dublin: CPA/DES.
Mannix McNamara, P. et al (2012). ‘Pre-service teachers’ experience of an attitudes to teaching SPHE
in Ireland’ Health Education 112 (3).
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (1999). Primary School Curriculum: SPHE, Teacher
Guidelines and Curriculum. www.ncca.ie
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (2000). Post-Primary School Curriculum: SPHE,
Teacher Guidelines and Curriculum. www.ncca.ie
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (2008). Primary Curriculum Review Phase 2.
Dublin: NCCA.
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NicGabhainn, S, O’Higgins, S. and Barry, M. (2010). ‘The Implementation of social, personal and health
education in Irish schools’. Health Education, 110 (6).
O’Higgins, S. et al (2007). The Implementation of SPHE at Post-Primary School Level: A Case Study
Approach. Dublin: SPHE Support Service (post-primary).
O'Neill, B. & Dinh, T. (2013). “Cyberbullying among 9-16 year olds in Ireland”. Digital Childhoods
Working Paper Series (No.5). Dublin: Dublin Institute of Technology
Paulus, P. (2005). “From the Health Promoting School to the Good and Healthy School: New
Developments in Germany” in Clift, S. and Bruun Jensen, B. (eds), The Health Promoting School:
International Advances in Theory, Evaluation and Practice. Copenhagen: Danish University of Education
Press.
Samdal, O. (1999). “The Norwegian Network of Health Promoting Schools.”in Learnings from the Irish
Network of Health Promoting Schools: Conference Report. Dublin: DoHC/DES.
UNICEF Ireland (2011). Changing the Future – Experiencing Adolescence in Contemporary Ireland:
Mental Health. www.unicef.ie
Tjomsland, H., Larsen, T., Grieg Viig, N. & Wold, B. (2009). “ A Fourteen Year Follow-Up Study of Health
Promoting Schools in Norway: Principals’ Perceptions of Conditions Influencing Sustainability”. The
Open Education Journal, Vol.2, pp. 54-64.