A Comparative Content Analysis of Human Health Care Coverage Across Grade 6, 7, and 8 General Science Textbooks in Pakistan's Single National Curriculum (2022)

Abstract

The present study aims to draw comparisons between the extent of coverage of human health care content in the grade 6, 7 and 8 General Science books adopted by the Single National Curriculum (SNC, 2022). Although curriculum frameworks are supposed to take students from one year to another in a progressive way towards increased health literacy, there is no clear indication in Pakistan's elementary science curriculum of the gradual progression or a seemingly incoherent, inconsistent sequence of coverage. The study follows qualitative content analysis design and uses a structured checklist to the 5 selected categories of health i.e. Personal Hygiene, Food and healthy diet, Human Body systems, Disease prevention, and Health and lifestyle practices of the 3 textbooks of General science which were purposively selected as sample of the officially approved textbooks published by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Textbook Board. Grade-wise scores are compared to see if the amount of coverage grows, stays the same or changes from Grade 6 to Grade 8. The results indicate that the overall rate of coverage is not linear with grade level 67 percent in Grade 6, 53 percent in Grade 7, and 73 percent in Grade 8, and that the most significant gap was in the complete lack of Food and Healthy Diet content in grade 7. The category of Human Body Systems is consistently covered with full marks and stable in all three grades; in other words, it is the only category that has a consistent coverage from grade to grade. There is consistent coverage from grade to grade in the category of Human Body Systems, while in the other two categories, Personal Hygiene and Health and Lifestyle Practices, the coverage is persistently weak from grade to grade. The comparison shows that the curriculum does not have a clear model of vertical progression for all health topics, and some topics are taught in one grade and not built upon over the course of the grades. The study suggests using a spiral format in curriculum design for the content of human health care for students in elementary grades so as to provide continuous and deepening exposure to students.