The importance of concepts
As noted by John Dewey,
“it would be impossible to overestimate the educational importance of arriving at conceptions: that is, of meanings that are general because applicable in a great variety of different instances . . . and that are standardized, known points of reference by which to get our bearings when we are plunged into the strange and unknown.”
A framework for developing educational resources and evaluation tools
The Informed Health Choices (IHC) Key Concepts is a starting point for deciding what knowledge and skills people need to be able to assess claims about the effects of things we do for our health (health actions) and make informed health choices. They provide a basis for developing educational resources and evaluating learners’ ability to think critically about health actions. Most of the concepts are relevant to other types of actions or interventions, including agricultural, educational, and environmental interventions (Aronson 2019).
Development of the Key Concepts
We published the first version of the IHC Key Concepts in 2015. You can find earlier versions of the Key Concepts, reports of how we developed the Key Concepts, and how we have used the Key Concepts in our publications.