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Ninth grade health education classrooms were randomly assigned to conditions in which a 14-lesson unit on HIV and pregnancy prevention was provided either by the permanent classroom teacher or by a temporary health educator. Student data were collected prior to the lessons and approximately 3 weeks after the completion of the unit. Results indicate that students who learned the unit from the classroom teacher reported that that the instructor was more likeable and credible and that the classrooms were more motivational. Sexually active adolescents with regular classroom teachers reported greater increases in frequency of class discussion.

The disruption of in-person delivery of a sexual health education curriculum to students in 19 urban middle schools in the Midwestern United States was one of many complications in education due the COVID-19 pandemic. Given time constraints and need for program delivery, community partners collaborated to convert the curriculum for virtual delivery. A team of school health education experts, sexual health education professionals, educational psychologists, and an E-learning professional worked together in curriculum conversion, leveraging knowledge and expertise for production of a virtual sexual health education curriculum tool for educators to use for teaching middle school students learning in a virtual format and as an aid for future in-person delivery.

Little attention has been paid to goal structures in health education, despite their well-established roles in motivation and learning. The primary goal of this study was to examine the longitudinal relations of classroom goal structures to high school students' (N = 636) motivation and learning outcomes in health education. We incorporated two aspects of motivation: self-efficacy for negotiating condom use and task values for learning new information about HIV and pregnancy prevention. Results revealed that students' perceptions of a mastery goal structure were positively related to their self-efficacy and task values, and also their knowledge and behavioral intentions one year after the health education curriculum had been delivered. In contrast, students' perceptions of an extrinsic goal structure were not related to their motivation and learning outcomes. Our findings suggest that the implementation of instructional practices focusing on mastery may enhance the efficacy of HIV and pregnancy prevention programs.

Sex education in middle and high school health classes is critically important because it frequently comprises the primary mechanism for conveying information about sexual health to adolescents. Deliver evidence-based information on HIV and pregnancy prevention practices and they will be less likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors, the theory goes. One must ultimately inquire, however, if these programs actually work. Do adolescents actually implement what they learn in health education classes? One way that helps adolescents learn, maintain and make better choices on their knowledge is by focusing on how sex education is taught and assessed. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

Over 5,000 adolescents enrolled in required rural high school health courses reported their perceptions of mastery and extrinsic goal structures in their health classrooms. Data were collected from all students at three time points (prior to HIV and pregnancy instruction, 3 months after instruction, and 1 year after instruction). Results indicated that classroom goal structures were related to both proximal and distal knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and efficacy beliefs. Results in particular indicate that the perception of a mastery goal structure in health education classrooms fosters knowledge, improved attitudes, enhanced efficacy beliefs, and lower intentions to have sexual intercourse.

In the present study (N = 633), we examine the role of teacher credibility and teacher affinity in classrooms. We explore the relations among these two characteristics and student gains in knowledge and valuing of learning about HIV and pregnancy prevention across high school classrooms. Results marshaled support for the notion that teacher characteristics are associated with classroom-level gains in learning outcomes. Above and beyond student-level predictors, teacher credibility (aggregated to the classroom level) was positively related to increases in knowledge across classrooms, whereas aggregated teacher affinity was positively related to an increased valuing of learning about HIV and pregnancy prevention across classrooms. Future directions and implications for practice are discussed.

The authors examined the relations between academic cheating and impulsivity in a large sample of adolescents enrolled in high school health education classes. Results indicated that impulsivity predicts academic cheating for students who report extensive involvement in cheating. However, students who engage in extensive cheating are less likely to report cheating when they perceive a mastery goal structure. In addition, both moderate and extensive cheaters report less cheating when they perceive the teacher as being credible. (Contains 3 tables.)

Decades of achievement goal theory research reveal that a perceived mastery goal structure is consistently associated with positive student outcomes. Yet relatively little research has examined the conditional effects of mastery goal structure. Within the context of health education, we investigated whether the relations of mastery goal structure to a student's motivation to learn would be moderated by individual differences in the enjoyment and engagement of effortful cognitive activity—the need for cognition (NC). Data were collected from 660 high school students at two time points during semester-long health education courses. Consistent with our predictions, results indicate that the relation between mastery goal structure and increases in students' academic self-concept and values over time is stronger for low NC students and weaker for high NC students. The present study bridges applied research on classroom motivation with basic attitudes research—demonstrating that students' motivation to learn is a joint function of their perceptions of achievement-related messages provided by teachers and preferences for engaging in cognitively demanding activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]