Curricular analysis and student perception of first aid in teacher training
Keywords:
curriculum; faculty; first aid; health educationAbstract
Introduction: First aid training enables teachers to respond to emergencies in the school setting, where they are in charge of children and adolescents. Its inclusion in teacher education curricula is infrequent.
Objective: To explore the presence of first aid content in teacher education curricula and students' perception of its importance.
Methods: An exploratory, descriptive, mixed-methods study was conducted in the seven programs of the Faculty of Education of a Chilean university. Curricula were reviewed, participation of teacher education students in an elective workshop in 2020 and 2021 was analyzed, and a survey was answered by 15 of the 564 teacher education students (2.7%).
Results: Only 2 of the 7 programs included a first aid module, both in the physical activity area. Participation of teacher education students in the workshop was 8% in 2020 and 2% in 2021. All respondents considered this knowledge important, and 93.3% supported its incorporation as a subject.
Conclusions: First aid has a limited presence in the teacher education analyzed, in contrast with the importance students attribute to it. The findings, exploratory in nature, support reviewing its incorporation into teacher education curricula.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Daniel Cristóbal Martínez Allende, Manuel Enrique Cortés Cortés, Alexis Matheu Pérez
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