A Study On The Competency Of Health Education For Kindergarten Teachers

Health or happiness is the voice of education. Recently a series of child security incidents were reported in kindergartens, it seems that teachers’health and children’s health education deserve more attentions. Health education is a research frontier internationally but also a widespread governmental action. We should take the opportunities of pre-school educational reform to review and rediscover child health education and the role of kindergarten teachers.Therefore, we reviewed literatures of health education and put forward the theory of integrated health education. The Kindergarten Teachers’Health Education Competency Scale was developed through literature analysis, interview and two questionnaire surveys, and it was preliminarily proved through confirmatory factor analysis. In other words, kindergarten teachers’health education competency included assessing young children’s needs for health education, young children’s health education planning, implementing, evaluating, acting as a resource person in young children’s health education, communicating and advocating young children’s health education.Given the vast area of China, we took eight regional division as our sampling frame, including the Northeast, the North Coast, the Middle Reaches of the Yellow River, the Great Northwest, the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, the East Coast, the Southwest, the South Coast. It mailed 4300 questionnaires, received 3789 questionnaires, and 3100 were effective. Through analysis of variance (ANOVA), the current situation of Chinese kindergarten teachers’health education competency was investigated; In addition, the influence factors were explored by hierarchical regression analysis.It found that as far as kindergarten teachers’health education competency was concerned, scores in abilities of practice were higher than that in cognitive competence; secondly, when different areas were compared, southeastern areas reported better results; Thirdly, when scores in urban areas were compared, public kindergartens were higher, especially collective kindergartens or kindergartens with a mixed system were the highest; the more kinds of classes the kindergarten teachers were in charge of, the higher scores were reported. Fourthly, there existed different stages in development of kindergarten teachers’ health education competency. The best performing stage was consistent with the kindergarten teachers’health condition, that is when their life was settling down and their career was in phase of experimentation and reassessment; Fifthly, with the academic degree raised, the health education competence performance of preschool teachers improved significantly; Sixthly, preschool teachers conferred the academic titles performed better than those with no academic titles, however, as the titles became higher, not all health education competencies got higher scores significantly; Seventhly, when preschool teachers’ monthly income exceeded RMB 3000, the competency scores did not continue improved significantly; Eighthly, in some ways, teachers graduated from preschool education showed some advantages in health education competency.Regression analysis showed that age or personal natural characteristics were likely to play an indirect role through other factors in kindergarten teachers’health education competency. In our study, academic qualifications, income levels and class types were the most important factors influencing teachers’health education competency. Consequently, measures should be taken from three levels to promote preschool teachers’health education competency.