Abstract:

The period of the Covid-19 pandemic underlined the need for an innovative approach in education, both in terms of didactic approaches and educational content, especially towards the development of health literacy. Currently, a major revision of the basic curricular document—the Framework educational programme for elementary education—is being implemented in the Czech Republic. Part of the revision is a transformation of the educational area Man and health and the educational field Health education, where emphasis should be on the prevention of infectious diseases. In order to be able to follow the innovated curriculum both in terms of content and didactic approaches, schools must have highly qualified teachers.

The aim of this paper is to analyse and evaluate the cognitive dimension of future teachers in the field of knowledge related to the Covid-19 disease and the global pandemic it caused. The results will be used to design solutions for undergraduate teacher training and for the revision of the Framework educational programme for elementary education, specifically the educational area Health education.

The research tool was an online questionnaire designed by the author structured into three sections (knowledge, attitudes/opinions, behaviour) concerning the complex issue related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The research participants were 130 teacher training students (future teachers) from the Faculty of Education, Palacký University Olomouc. In the first stage of the research, data collection was performed in spring 2022. This paper analyses and evaluates the data from the knowledge section of the research tool (achievement test), which included a total of 28 items. The threshold for successful completion of each test item was set at 80% of respondents with correct answers.

Of the 28 knowledge items related to the Covid-19 disease and the pandemic, 14 (50%) were answered below the success threshold (correct answers indicated by 80% of respondents or more). The lowest rate of correct answers was observed in the item concerning the time required to wash hands in order to prevent infectious diseases (14.6% of correct answers). The highest number of correct answers was in the item suggesting that Covid-19 is a viral disease (99.2%).

It can be concluded that in the area of the so-called “generally known information” published by mainstream media, future teachers achieved relatively high success rates of correct answers. In specific items related to the prevention or diagnosis of Covid-19, future teachers demonstrated a very low level of knowledge. This implies that the knowledge dimension of future teachers associated with Covid-19 is inadequate and may become a limiting factor in the educational reality in the primary, lower secondary as well as higher secondary education. It is therefore desirable to strengthen education in the field of prevention of infectious diseases in disciplines related to health, lifestyle and health literacy as part of undergraduate teacher training.

Acknowledgement:
The paper was supported by the Grant Fund of the Dean of the Faculty of Education, Palacký University Olomouc GF_PdF_2022_01 “Access to health support during the Covid-19 pandemic and related measures“.

Keywords:

Health literacy, future teachers, health education, curriculum.