Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to reveal the extent of inclusion of health concepts in science textbooks for the basic stage in Jordan. To answer the questions of the study, the researcher developed a list of suggested health concepts, which included (31) concepts, distributed over seven health domains: personal health, nutritional health, environmental health, use of harmful drugs and substances, safety and accident prevention, human body health, community health, disease control and prevention. Methods: In pursuit of the study objectives, the content analysis method was employed to analyze science textbooks for grades one through eight (first and second semesters). These textbooks are issued by the Ministry of Education and are taught in Jordan for the academic year 2020/2021. Results: The results of the study showed that the total numbers of health concepts included in textbooks were (24) concepts, the frequencies of the health concepts were (201) with (77.4%). Where the human body health domain was the highest frequencies (50.7%), then environmental health (11.4%), personal health, nutritional health was (11%) for both of them, safety and accident prevention were (9.5%), use of harmful drugs and substances was (3.5%); while disease control and prevention was the least frequencies (2.9%), the concepts of community health was not included in textbooks. Conclusions: Based upon these findings, numbers of recommendations were suggested; more attention should be paid to the education of health concepts, to inculcate positive values and strengthen the health trends of the learners, and the need to focus on some concepts that were ignored or with less frequencies.