AIDS education for youth through active learning: A school-based approach from Malawi

doi:10.1016/S0738-0593(96)00013-2

International Journal of Educational Development

Volume 17, Issue 1, January 1997, Pages 41-50

This paper is dedicated to the joyful memory of Naomi Mpemba.

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Abstract

Health education programmes need to address local understandings of HIV/AIDS within the broader context of sexual behaviour. We report on a locally derived and community orientated questionnaire survey of HIV/AIDS and sexually related behaviour among 756 pupils from two government secondary schools in Malawi. On average, pupils gave the correct answers to more than 70% of the items on the survey. Seventy-two pupils from one of the schools subsequently participated in playing an educational board game about AIDS, once a week, over four weeks. The percentage of correct responses given while playing the board game significantly increased each time the board game was played, and a one-month follow-up questionnaire showed that a significant improvement had been maintained in comparison with the initial questionnaire survey. Pupils who attended the school where the board game was trialed, but who did not participate in the board game, scored slightly, but significantly, higher than pupils from the other ‘no-board game’ control school. This result was tentatively interpreted as a ‘trickle down’ effect. The benefits of introducing active learning methods into schools, of focusing on local understandings of health problems, and of establishing an accurate knowledge base for health promotion are discussed.

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AIDS education for youth through active learning: A school-based approach from Malawi

Abstract

The Lancet

Social Science and Medicine

Sexual knowledge, sources of information and sexual activities of school-going adolescents in Malawi

AIDS — Related beliefs, attitudes and intensions in Malawi

AIDS in Africa: Its Present and Future Impact

The politics of AIDS and condoms for state homosexual relationships in Africa: Recent evidence from the local print media

Disasters

The AIDS Challenge

Further results on the macroeconomic effects of AIDS: The dualistic labour-supply economy

The World Bank Economic Review

AIDS in Malawi

Malawi Medical Journal