Sexuality education instructional techniques: teacher usage and student preference

Area of Science:

• Sexuality Education
• Pedagogy
• Adolescent Health

Background:

• Effective sexuality education requires understanding both teacher practices and student preferences.
• Aligning instructional methods with student engagement is crucial for knowledge retention and positive attitudes.
• Previous research has not extensively compared teacher- and student-selected instructional techniques across a broad range of sexuality education topics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and compare instructional techniques used by secondary school teachers and preferred by secondary school students for 20 distinct sexuality education topics.
• To determine if specific techniques are favored for social-emotional versus physiological aspects of sexuality education.
• To analyze the congruence between teacher-utilized and student-preferred instructional methods.

Main Methods:

• Survey of 89 secondary school teachers and 334 secondary school students regarding instructional techniques for 20 sexuality education topics.
• Analysis of commonly utilized and preferred methods, including large group discussion, educational media, guest speakers, case study, lecture, small group work, and role play.
• Chi-square test of independence to identify significant differences between teacher and student responses.

Main Results:

• Large group discussion, educational media, guest speakers, case study, lecture, small group work, and role play were frequently used and preferred methods.
• Large group discussion was preferred for social-emotional topics (self-awareness, relationships, communication).
• Educational media and guest speakers were preferred for physiological topics (reproductive systems, birth control).
• Significant differences (chi-square test) between teacher and student responses were observed for 16 out of 20 topics.

Conclusions:

• While some consensus exists, significant discrepancies between teacher practices and student preferences in sexuality education instructional techniques were identified.
• Instructional strategies should be tailored to the specific content, with discussions for social aspects and media/speakers for physiological aspects.
• Further research and dialogue are needed to bridge the gap between teacher-implemented and student-preferred methods for comprehensive sexuality education.