Determinants of health; relationship between health and human behavior; the role of health education as a strategy in health promotion and disease prevention; selected issues and problems.
Principles and methods of epidemiologic investigation; application of epidemiologic to prevention and control of disease, using health education.
Basic topics in promoting child and adolescent health; relationships between school, family, and community in promoting the health status of school-age children.
Social-Psychological, cultural, clinical, and pharmacological factors associated with the use of psychoactive drug s and other compulsive behaviors.
Analysis of current national health policy, its social, economic, and political determinants, and implications for health education.
Explore human sexuality from a variety of perspectives; explore students' own attitudes about human sexuality and how they affect them personally and professionally; examine methods of teaching and designing sexuality education programs.
Health status, needs, and problems of multicultural populations in urban environments and sensitivity to these issues in effective programs.
This course reviews the critical health issues that affect the well-being of youths today, emphasizing the practical aspects of child health that are mandated for teaching certification, including the following: reporting child abuse; preventing school violence; and promoting respect and dignity for all students. Students who take an online section of this course must also take an additional three-hour in-person workshop to meet the Dignity For All Students Act (DASA) requirement for teacher certification.
The role of schools, parents, and communities in educating youth about AIDS and human sexuality; review of methods and resource materials for providing such education; consideration of controversial issues surrounding these topics.
The course covers numerous principles to guide health related behavioral change, as well as social change--including on the individual, organizational, national and global levels. Introductory principles are covered that are rooted in theory and techniques for initiating and maintaining change for a variety of addictive and problem behaviors, including a focus on the stages of change, motivational interviewing, and relapse prevention. Additional principles are key to guiding social change, for designing leadership, resolving conflicts, and collaborating with partners on strategies for change.
Designed to increase awareness/insight of the multidimensional aspects of death, dying, and bereavement. Gain skills as health care professionals in dealing with death, its causes, treatment of life-threatening illness, including AIDS, suicide, and violent death. Explore customs across cultures, afterlife beliefs, near-death experiences, and ethical issues.
Explore biologic and environmental influences on women's health risks and disease. Additionally, students will acquire knowledge to evaluate clinical studies in the literature and gain basic understanding of the process of planning and developing women's health promotion programs.
This course covers the nature and prevention of invisible and covert, as well as visible and overt violence, including intrapersonal, interpersonal, family, community, gang, school, societal, and international manifestations.
This course provides an introduction to the field of biostatistics and the application of statistics to health education and community health data. This course covers the collection, storage, retrieval, analysis, and interpretation of health data; design and analysis of health-related surveys and experiments; concepts essential to statistical data analysis; and the practice of statistical data analysis. Details on hypothesis testing, normality, and types of error are incorporated into several of the lessons. Research methodology (i.e., study design, data collection) and data management skills are also taught. Applications of these concepts to health education and community health data are used throughout the course. The overall goals of this course are to foster a comprehensive understanding of basic data collection and analysis methods used in health education and community health research and to help students become more comfortable working with and managing data in SPSS.
This course provides an introduction to the field of environmental health, while focusing upon those environmental factors that affect the health of communities - including biological, physical, and chemical factors. The relationship between the natural and built environments on human health are focused upon. In addition, the course incorporates the use of case studies and current peer-reviewed literature in the field of environmental health to promote knowledge acquisition. Health education curriculum and program development processes are incorporated into the course as well.
Permission required. Research and independent study under faculty direction. Proposals must have prior approval of a faculty member.
This course will explore the complex issues and challenges facing those working to enhance the quality of student health and student learning at college and universities.
Introduction to research, study designs, and data collection methods in research in health and behavior studies, including nursing, nutrition, and health education with emphasis on reading and understanding research literature.
Theory-based analysis of the cultural, social-psychological, and social-structural determinants of health-related behaviors; implications for planned change at individual, small-group, and community levels.
Process of developing social, epidemiological, behavioral, and educational diagnoses; principles of planning, implementing, and evaluating health education interventions.
This course provides a detailed study of social marketing and health communication efforts and their role at facilitating behavior changes at both an individual and community-wide level. Students in this course will learn how to use peer-reviewed research and key social marketing principles to develop a comprehensive and effective social marketing campaign; learn how to target health communication efforts towards specific audiences and via varied channels of distribution; understand the role of social media and technology in facilitating/influencing behavior changes; study current examples of successful social marketing initiatives; use data analytic tools to inform changes to a campaign; discuss the ethics surrounding health communication and social marketing efforts. The course incorporates reviews of current research being conducted on social marketing and health communication efforts on a range of health issues and across different communities.
Survey and analysis of concepts, issues, strategies, and methods relevant to community health analysis and intervention.
Individual and small group practice in the application of basic principles of counseling in the area of health problems.
The course meets requirements of the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) by providing an opportunity for students to gain practical skills via field work or internships. This practicum course provides students with a culminating experience that is central to our mission. More specifically, the mission of the M.S. Degree Program in Community Health Education is to address the health of the public through the preparation of specialists in health education who focus on the community as the setting for analysis, assessment, program planning, intervention, evaluation, and research. Varied structures, institutions, organizations, and agencies in the community setting--including schools, hospitals, clinics, worksites, and non-profits--are engaged in collaborative relationships for the purposes of fulfilling the mission. Thus, the practicum course specifically ensures that students have a supervised experience in a community setting where they are engaged in a collaborative relationship with a supervisor, staff, and selected consumers within that setting. The intention is to ensure that M.S. degree students have received well rounded preparation for professional careers as health education specialists through a supervised experience across 180 hours within a setting of their choice; this may be a setting aligned with their goals for professional development and future employment. Of note, M.A. degree students are also welcome to participate in optional fieldwork vis this course.
Permission required. Advance registration required in the semester prior to taking the course. Supervised health teaching in a school. Essay required at end of teaching experience.
This two day, spring semester, weekend conference event exposes participants to 1) potentially new knowledge with regard to the variety of evidence-based approaches to reducing health disparities; 2) attitudes/beliefs so multicultural sensitivity/competence begins to replace socially conditioned stereotypes that threaten interpersonal communication/interaction during service delivery/research/teaching; and, 3) skills for deployment of culturally appropriate behaviors that aim to reduce disparities.
Theory, methods, and problems of measurement and evaluation; standards for evaluation of health, education, and related social programs; skills in critical evaluation of research and evaluation reports.
Topics include social learning theory, attribution, and attitudes as they apply to health promotion, disease prevention, reactions to illness, and adherence to treatment regimens.
Permission required. Review of research literature, methods, and problems in health education.
Permission required. Open to matriculated doctoral students. Research and independent study under faculty direction. Proposals must have prior approval of a faculty member.
Permission required. Open to certified doctoral candidates only. Development and presentation of doctoral dissertation proposals.
Permission required. Doctoral candidates only. Individual advisement on doctoral dissertations.
Program Director: Professors John Allegrante, Charles Basch, and Sonali Rajan
Teachers College, Columbia University
525 West 120th Street, Box 114, New York, NY 10027
Contact Person: Evelyn Quinones, Academic Secretary
Email: eq2116@tc.columbia.edu