Puberty and sexuality education using a learning and teaching theoretical framework

Abstract

All children need timely puberty and sexuality education. The task falls to schools because they have the learning and teaching processes, competency programmes, opportunities, and resources for age-appropriate cognitive, knowledge, and skills development in children and adolescents. Quality sexuality education guidance documents have been designed for teachers to use in programmes at all school age levels, and in many countries. However, this paper aims to show how teachers can use a theoretical framework that particularly addresses learning and teaching processes to guide their planning, provision, and assessing for specific pedagogical solutions in puberty and sexuality education classes. A recommended theoretical framework employs six cognitive processes linked with four types of knowledge in an evidence-based, cumulative, and transparent organisational table, for use in any learning area or educational context. Its application can assist teachers’ implementation of quality, effective puberty and sexuality education lessons, Units of work, and full-year learning and teaching in primary and secondary schools. This theoretical framework can also be used by appropriate child and adolescent educators in out-of-school situations, and other evidence-based interventions. The timely, continuing, and normalised implementation of such learning and teaching processes, can, in turn, support students’ experiences of puberty, which now start earlier, and also enhance their developmental opportunities, health, safety, prosocial values, and future lifechances.