Use of the "theme study" as means of curriculum development in continuation high schools

This article presents the evaluation of written paragraphs which described twenty-one drug abuse prevention "themes" contained in thirty-five separate activities, as part of the process of curriculum development targeting Continuation High School students. The goal was to determine which activities were most preferred by these youth. The paragraphs consisted of descriptions of traditional drug abuse prevention program activities, alternative activities using the themes underlying traditional activities, and novel activities generated from newly developed themes. The study was conducted with seven Continuation High Schools. Three hundred and fifteen students participated in this study. Each student rated detailed written descriptions of five activities. Classrooms were randomly assigned to different combinations of paragraphs. An analysis of variance indicated that there were significant differences in preferences among activities, with a marked preference for the alternative and novel activity presentations. Females, Latinos, older students, and non-marijuana users rated the activities higher overall. There were no significant interactions between demographic variables and order of activity preference. If there is a limit in amount of allotted time and resources, the theme study is an appropriate and cost-effective tool for gaining important information for health curricula development.