Our solution

Critical thinking about claims

We are developing, testing, and scaling up the use of effective learning resources to enable people to think critically about health claims and make informed choices. We started by creating primary school resources to lay a foundation for continued learning, and will continue developing resources for secondary schools. Additionally we developed a podcast for parents. Currently we have begun work developing resources for use in secondary schools. The learning resources complement and facilitate critical thinking teaching and scientific reasoning in other areas.

Resources with universal relevance

We initially created resources for low-income settings, where the need is greatest. However, teams in over 20 countries – including high and middle income settings – are translating and adapting these resources for use in their settings. Most teams are finding that except for language translation, the school resources can be used in their original form without major changes.
See IHC by Country.

International and multi-disciplinary collaboration

We are an international team with backgrounds in research, public health, design, education, technology and communication. We collaborate closely with teachers, students, parents, school administrators and curriculum developers in different countries. Employing a human-centred design approach, we develop resources that are engaging, understandable and feasible to implement in a range of contexts. We carry out fair comparisons (randomized trials) to make sure that they are effective, and use process evaluations to understand how we might better facilitate uptake of resources at a country level.
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Better personal choices and policy decisions

Our solution will empower people to make better personal choices. It will also enable them to participate in policy debates as scientifically literate citizens. Today’s children are tomorrow’s health professionals and policymakers, as well as patients and citizens. To achieve the benefits of a scientifically literate population making well-informed decisions – not only about health care but also decisions regarding other kinds of interventions (e.g. environmental, educational, economic) –  we need to start with children. The time to start is now, for the benefit of individuals, communities and all of humankind.

Read about our Key Concepts