Niveles de competencia en alimentación y actividad física en los libros de texto de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria

As a result of the incorporation of the basic competences into the school curriculum after the application of the LOE, the need to determine them for the topics related to health education arises. In the present work, an instrument has been developed to analyze contents and competences related to Food and Physical Activity included in the textbooks of Biology and Geology of Compulsory Secondary Education. The results show the predominance of the conceptual dimension, followed by the procedural and attitudinal dimensions. Regarding the five levels of the concept of health, the presence of a greater number of competence contents of the Informative and Preventive levels stands out, showing a predominance of the traditional biologicist/medical approach. The competence contents related to Environmental Health (level 3) and Personal Development are addressed in a minor extent, with even less significance of the Personal and Social Development level. The need to design complementary resources that facilitate students’ achievement of competences on Food and Physical Activity becomes clear.