Fl. Peterson et al., Enhancing teacher health literacy in school health promotion: A vision forthe new millennium, J SCH HEALT, 71(4), 2001, pp. 138-144
While the National Health Education Standards focused interest and attentio
n on student (consumer) health literacy, equal attention should be given to
teacher (provider) health literacy. Teacher health literacy may be defined
as "the capacity of teachers to obtain, interpret, and understand basic he
alth information and sen ices, with the competence to use such information
and services in ways that enhance the learning of health concepts and skill
s by school students." This paper reviews a traditional model for school he
alth teacher preparation, then presents an alternative, university field-te
sted model for enhancing health literacy in teacher education. This new mod
el presents an innovative instructional paradigm, the Child and Adolescent
Health (CAH) Logic Framework. This training model (vision) illustrates and
emphasizes the link between child and adolescent health research and theory
, CAH information, and application to health education, public policy, medi
cal care. and health advocacy.