In part three of these blog posts will include the final portions of the intervention. It will include: Assessment and Evaluation tools, Time Limitations, Cost Concern, Recruiting Participants, and the Content/Process. As well it will include the Appendix from the intervention of what assessment tools would be used for the intervention.
Assessments/Evaluation Tools
As stated previously, the student’s parents will all receive a questionnaire in regard to the level of communication on sexuality and sexual education they have with their student. This can be found in Appendix 1.3. The student will also receive a pretest and posttest to gather information on the effectiveness of the intervention and to provide data for future intervention goals. The pretest can be found in Appendix 1.1. The posttest can be found in Appendix 1.2. The lessons came from different resources that have research-based evidence on effectiveness for students. The first two lessons came from teachingsexualhealth.ca. The third lesson came from the Sexuality Education Resource Center. The final lesson comes from thetrevorproject.org.
Time Limitations
Due to the larger population of an entire grade in a school, there needs to be effective time management for all parties involved. The facilitator will do a “role played” intervention with participating teachers in order to work on prior underlying biases. It may prove beneficial to permit a fifth or sixth week to accommodate for any time loss. Trying to do an entire student grade population in four weeks would be very difficult and it would require more people to get it done. This is why the intervention has been pushed to 12-weeks with a rotating population model.
Cost Concerns
All resources are provided. It is assumed that all personnel would be paid staff already. Volunteers may be collected from parents or community members who may wish to be involved. Discretion is advised when choosing a parent who may want to volunteer. Time from the academic school day is the biggest cost to the school, though arguably can be seen as an investment.
Recruiting Participants
Students already will attend the school. All 8th grade students would be in attendance, unless a parent provided the document that excused their child from participating in this intervention.
Content/Process
As stated through this intervention, the four topics covered are: puberty, reproduction/anatomy, healthy relationships, and empathy for LGBTQIA+. Increasing awareness for others and self is the main point that is trying to be addressed in this intervention. Sexuality requires a level of empathy as understanding others can be difficult with such a sensitive topic. The more students learn about others and their own bodies, the more comfortable they will be at coming forward for questions that would otherwise be difficult to ask. In the puberty lesson, it would be a major point made to cover both anatomies and puberty processes for male and female students. The reproduction and anatomy lesson would be filled with a lot of identifying terms that are anatomically correct. The healthy relationships lesson will focus on providing role play examples of what healthy relationships look like versus unhealthy relationships. This lesson would also provide what consent is in a non-sexual way in order that the student have a concept of what it means to give and get consent in situations. Consider playing the YouTube video, “Consent Tea” (YouTube, 2015). The final lesson is the empathy lesson for LGBTQIA+. As our society continues to be more accepting as a whole, there is a likelihood that parents and teachers will be uncomfortable handling the subtleties and intricacies of the LGBTQIA+ community. It is important that trying to gain the perspective of peers in these communities in order to facilitate a healthy and safe environment for all students in education is the key in these conversations and lessons. In doing so, a level of equity is brought to all students and levels of safety across the board.
The goal is an introduction into sexuality and sexual education. In abstinence only programs, it can be difficult to cover all topics that make up the complex concept of sexuality. This is meant to be a starting point and a conversation enabler for students, staff, and parents. With proper training and awareness this will benefit 8th grade students as they enter into high school with a better understanding of such an important part of their identity and could help prevent teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, unhealthy relationships, and unwanted sexual interactions.
Reference
Ferguson, R. M., Vanwesenbeeck, I., & Knijn, T. (2008). A matter OF FACTS… and more: An exploratory analysis of the content of sexuality education in The Netherlands. Sex Education, 8(1), 93–106. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681810701811878
Going Through Puberty . Teaching Sexual Health . (2018).
Grossman, J. M., Frye, A., Charmaraman, L., & Erkut, S. (2013). Family homework and school-based sex education: Delaying early adolescents' sexual behavior. Journal of School Health, 83(11), 810–817. https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.12098
Healthy Relationships. Sexual Education Resource Center . (2018).
Pierce , J. (2015). Empathy and Awareness: Coming Out Stars Activity . The Trevor Project . https://www.thetrevorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/75ea657f061737b608_6pm6ivozp.pdf.
Reproduction Review . Teaching Sexual Health. (2018).
Rojas-Brinez, D. K., Galvis-Panqueva, A. H., & Flores-Hinojos, I. A. (2019). How Should I Teach Sex Education in Middle School? An Action Research Study on an ICT-Based Intervention . The Qualitative Report , 24(2), 405–428.
Stanger-Hall, K. F., & Hall, D. W. (2011). Abstinence-Only education and teen PREGNANCY rates: Why we need comprehensive sex education in the U.S. PLoS ONE, 6(10). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0024658
YouTube. (2015). Tea Consent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQbei5JGiT8.
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