Modeling for Health by the School Teachers in Nepal

Abstract

Modeling enhances client understanding by creating a visual representation of their world, promoting facilitation, nurturing, and unconditional acceptance within their framework and perspective. The study investigates secondary level teachers' practice of modeling skills in classrooms for student health promotion, focusing on Nepalese schools and considering the modeling constructs from the "modeling and role modeling theory." The study utilized a cross-sectional survey design with a descriptive quantitative approach, involving questionnaires distributed to secondary school teachers in three districts, Chitwan, Bhaktapur and Rasuwa. Out of 414 questionnaires, 344 teachers returned the questionnaires, with a response rate of 83.09%. The tool was made inclusive, evaluated for face validity, and maintained confidentiality and anonymity while data collection and presentation. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. The study found that teachers perform three categories of modeling for students' health: facilitation, nurturance, and unconditional acceptance. These activities help teachers understand their students' perspectives and realize their health situation. However, only 6.1% of teachers provide healthy experiences, 11.5% care for students' health needs, and 34% perform unconditional acceptance. Further investigation is needed to improve these practices. Nepalese teachers struggle with modeling healthy behaviors of students due to inadequate training and lack of health educators' orientation, requiring proper facilitation, nurturance, and unconditional acceptance training.