![Sample our Education journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5932/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Education.jpg"})
Abstract
This study is concerned with children's conceptual frameworks related to causes of health and sickness. The subjects were 48 Thai schoolchildren from grades 6 and 8. The study used a naturalistic inquiry approach, namely the ‘Interview‐about‐Instances’ technique and the ‘Conceptual Profile Inventory’ technique to analyse the children's responses.
The results indicated that Thai schoolchildren hold considerable personal knowledge about the causes of health and sickness that does not derive from school knowledge or from scientific frameworks. This additional knowledge was found to comprise both Thai cultural knowledge and Thai common‐sense interpretations developed from everyday experience within Thai society.
In addition, the patterns of conceptual frameworks found in this study reveal that Thai schoolchildren do not perceive concepts related to causes of health and sickness only within the biomedical framework. A number of alternative frameworks are taken into account. These are, for example, nutrition, human habit, human aggression, Thai values systems, religious beliefs, environment, living conditions, socioeconomic status, and family behaviour and attitudes.