Textbook Of Pediatric Dentistry Books Pdf File
School textbooks are an essential part of health education. They are the primary tools for transmitting educational content and guiding the classroom activities [21]. School textbooks have been considered as important as teachers, students, and the classroom itself in achieving educational goals [22]. The role of school textbooks as a reliable source of information becomes even more important when access to other sources of information is limited [23]. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), World Bank and United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have acknowledged the importance of textbooks for health education in developing countries [24].
Textbook Of Pediatric Dentistry Books Pdf File
A 2011 systematic review conducted in the United states and Spain, evaluating the content of school textbooks in relation to health lessons, concluded that the lessons in these textbooks are inadequate, inaccurate, or out of date, and hence need improvement [25]. In a study in Spain, Irala et al. reported that sexual and reproductive education in school textbooks are inaccurate [26].
Two studies about the status of health education in school textbooks from Iran showed that the content of textbooks, according to the age of children and their vulnerability, is poor and quantitatively limited [27, 28]. However, these studies only evaluated a few aspects of health and many important health topics, including oral health have not been evaluated yet.
Among the textbooks of different grades, the prevalence of health-related lessons was the highest in the textbooks of the third grade with 144 lessons and the lowest in the textbooks of the fourth grade with 26 lessons (Figure 1). The number of lessons in each topic in the third grade books was as follows: environmental health: 33, nutrition: 28, oral and dental health: 27, safety and accident prevention: 25, physical education: 13, personal health: 10, prevention of high-risk behaviors: six, and introduction to diseases: two. For the textbooks of the Fourth grade, the total number of lessons (26) comprised of the followings: physical education: 10, personal health: eight, environmental health: five, safety and accident prevention: two, and nutrition: one.
As it appears in this figure, among the five grades, science textbooks with 210 messages and religious studies textbooks with seven messages contained the highest and the lowest number of health messages, respectively.
With regards to oral and dental health, the textbooks of the first three grades contained the most number of lessons, with 15 lessons in the first grade books, 24 lessons in the second grade books, and 27 lessons in the third grade books. There were no lessons in the fourth grade books, and only one lesson in the fifth grade books (Figure 1). The lessons contained messages about using a toothbrush and brushing teeth regularly, dental hygiene, visiting a dentist on regular basis, exfoliation of primary teeth and eruption of permanent teeth, functions of different types of teeth, and tooth decay in the form of pictures or text.
Furthermore, according to the statistics of the UNICEF, the number of children who attend primary schools in Iran is exceptionally high, even larger than the number of students in secondary schools [32]. This led us to evaluate primary school textbooks as an important source for presenting health information to children.
The results of the present study show that in a total of 3598 pages of primary school textbooks, just 502 health related messages are presented. This relatively small number of health lessons is not adequate for effectively presenting a broad range of health concepts to the students and shaping their beliefs and attitudes towards healthy choices throughout life.
In all five grades of primary school, science textbooks had the most contribution in delivering health messages. Farsi literature textbooks, which comprise a big proportion of education time in primary school, have an important role in teaching health concepts as well. On the other hand, the textbooks of social sciences, religious studies, and mathematics were very poor in presenting health concepts, despite having a great potential for delivering health messages considering the total time devoted to these topics. Health concepts could be presented in these textbooks very successfully if combined with social and religious subjects, or Intellectual activities.
Personal hygiene is one of the most important aspects of health education. Unless measures are taken to cleanse the body on regular basis, the body is at risk of catching infections [34]. To this end, personal hygiene had the highest number of messages among the nine health related categories in primary school textbooks. The basic hygiene behaviors such as using a personal cup, using soap and hand washing, taking a bath, appropriate dressing, adequate sleep, and proper attitude towards hygiene, have been properly emphasized in primary school textbooks. It has been reported that health knowledge and attitudes of students significantly improve after receiving education [35].
There was a dearth of lessons about prevention of high-risk behaviors in the studied textbooks (only eight lessons in 27 books). Results of a few published studies have previously shown the low level of knowledge with regards to preventative measures and high-risk behaviors among Iranian students [44,45]. While lessons about prevention of high risk behaviors such as smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, and high risk sexual behaviors may be unnecessary in early school years (i.e. grades one through three), it is imperative to educate students in the fourth and fifth grades who are in transition period from childhood to adolescence and probably experience puberty, about such high risk behaviors.