The effectiveness of preposed training program in sustainable health on students’ acquisition of health concepts and their perceptions of sustainable healthy lifestyles

Purpose The research aims to investigate the effectiveness of training program in sustainable health on grade nine students’ acquisition of health concepts and their perceptions of a sustainable healthy lifestyle. Design/methodology/approach To achieve the aims of the study, two study groups were involved in the quasi-experimental design: an experimental group (70 students, 37 males and 33 females) and a control group (68 students, 38 males and 30 females). The authors produced two guides, one for teachers and another one for students to be used with the experimental group students. Moreover, two research instruments were used to collect the data. The first one was the Health Concepts Acquisition Test (HCAT) (consisting of 40 items), whereas the second instrument was the Students’ Perceptions of Sustainable Healthy Lifestyles Scale (SPSHLS) (consisting of 38 statements). The Cronbach’s alpha reliability of the two instruments was 0.714 for HCAT and 0.808 for SPSHLS. Findings The study showed statistically significant differences at (a = 0.05) in both students’ acquisition of health concepts and perceptions of sustainable healthy lifestyles, in favor of female students and the experimental group. Originality/value The study is among very few studies in the Arab Region targeting school students’ healthy lifestyles. The two guides were produced using active learning strategies and they can be adopted in another context.