Theoretical knowledge about smoking: Comparison of two instructional methods in elementary school students

The objective was to examine changes in theoretical knowledge relative to smoking, evaluated at two points (pre- and post-test), with consideration of two educational interventions (expository lessons and operative groups). The subjects were 68 pupils of both sexes in three 5^th grade public elementary school classes in the city of Bauru. To achieve this objective, the previous knowledge of the students about the subject was evaluated (M1); then expository instruction was administered to group 1, operative games to group 2, and no intervention to group 3. One week after the end of the interventions, reevaluation of the participants was undertaken (M2). For analysis of the percentage of correct responses on theoretical knowledge relative to smoking at these points, the Wilcoxon test was used; for analysis of the percentages between the groups, the Kruskal Wallis test was used. In the comparison of the respective evaluation points it was determined that G1 obtained at point 1 (Md= 3) and at point 2 (Md= 4), with a statistically significant difference (p<0.0001), G2 at point 1 (Md= 2) and at point 2 (Md= 6), with a statistically significant difference (p<0.0001), and G3 at point 1 (Md= 3) and at point 2 (Md= 2), presenting no statistically significant result (p>0.05). In comparisons between the groups in the pre-test, it was determined that there was no statistically significant difference between them (p= <0.05). The comparisons made by the difference between the points presented significant results in groups G1 and G2 in comparison with the control group (p<0.0001) and, when G1 was compared with G2, the latter presented better performance with a statistically significant difference (p<0.01). Considering these data, it can be stated that educational programs which reconcile life experience, reflection and systematization of content increase the chances of the students incorporating content related to the subject.