Healthier Students Better Learners

Healthier Students, Better Learners

Description
You will read and reflect on an article and parts of a report about the health-related factors that influence students’ motivation and ability to learn. In the subsequent assignment, you’ll read about a coordinated approach to address those factors.

Purpose

To develop the following National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) 2020 areas of responsibility and competency:

Area I: Assessment of Needs and Capacity

To develop the following SOPHE 2019 Health Education Teacher Preparation Standards:

Standard 2: Assessing Needs
Procedures

Resources
In the D2L content folder labeled Resources, locate the following two items:

Article: Basch, C. (2011a). Healthier students are better learners: A missing link in school reforms to close the achievement gap. Journal of School Health, 81, 593-598.
Report: Basch C.E. (2010). Healthier Students Are Better Learners: A Missing Link in School Reforms to Close the Achievement Gap. Columbia University.
While these articles are old, they are still the most frequently cited sources about the connection between health and academics. This makes them seminal literature.

Prompts
Respond in complete sentences to the reflection prompts below:

1. According to the Basch (2011a) article, what seven educationally relevant health disparities were selected as priority areas?

2. Three criteria were used to identify these priority areas.

a. What were those criteria?

b. In your own words, explain how each criterion was applied.

3. The author lists five causal pathways by which health-related factors influence motivation and ability to learn.

a. What are these five causal pathways?

b. Select one of the seven priority areas (from question 1). In the Basch (2010) report, read about this one area. (Save time! Look in the table of contents to find your area). For this one area, which of the five causal pathways are cited?

c. Based on the causal pathways you just identified, how does your selected priority area affect educational outcomes? Summarize and cite evidence from at least one research study in the report.

d. In the report, Basch lists strategies to address each priority (see the end of each priority area’s description). Imagine you are the chair of a new school health council. Select 1-2 strategies you would first implement in your school to address these areas based on what you have learned. Justify your strategies using evidence from the article and/or report.

Assignment Submission Directions

Remove my directions. Your work should look professional.
Include your name at the top.
Use Arial, Time New Roman, or a similar font style; use 10, 11, or 12-point font
Double or single-spaced is fine.
Cite all sources using APA format. Not sure how to do that?
OWL: In-Text Citation Guide
OWL: Reference List Rules
Save your file as a .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdf. Other formats cannot be opened in D2L.
Submit to the appropriate D2L Assignments folder. Emailed assignments are not accepted.
Grading Criteria
See D2L Rubric