Reflection on our Health Education Teaching Experience at the Wisconsin Northwest Regional Juvenile Detention Center

Abstract

During the 2016-2017 academic year, health education teacher education preparation courses at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire collaborated with the Wisconsin Northwest Regional Juvenile Detention Center (JDC). Undergraduate students in the course prepared the health lessons and taught middle- and high-school age (10-17 years old) students as a part of course. According to the children’s court services manager, 90 percent of the children and adolescents have not had past success in schools. Further, most of them have made unhealthy decisions in the past. We taught skill-based health education lessons such as interpersonal communication skills (e.g. conflict resolution and refusal skills). Through this experience, we learned that although they are incarcerated, JDC students were not much different from students we saw in the public schools. We also learned to adjust our lessons according to their rules and culture. We were told not to bring any sharp objects such as pens and stapled papers. We also had to adjust our active learning activities because JDC students were allowed to move only one person at a time with their staff’s permission. As a group, we learned to adapt our lessons to our students’ culture and discourse.