358 M. Machida et al.: Radioprotection 2025, 60( 4), 354 – 359
Fig. 1.( 1-2) Cooccurrence Network after FOOD, BODY and ACT workshops.
Group I, who were presumed to have poorer comprehension of the same learning content. It is possible that ACT provided an opportunity for children to think more deeply about food and health in their community by discussing and performing among peers. Notably, there was no observed change in children’ s confidence in preparing meals at home; this might be due to COVID-19 restrictions for FOOD that resulted in cooking activities being replaced with tasting.
Regarding free written opinions, words related to communication, active movement, and taking responsibility for one’ s own health appeared only in Group I. This suggests that ACT was clearly linked with thepromotion of agency, and effective in empowering children in health promotion through promoted critical thinking by communicating and collaborating with their peers. For Group II, group-specific words were organ-related, indicating that the workshop was useful for knowledge retention.
The Creative Health workshops are conducted in collaboration with schoolteachers. As described above, ACT in particular makes teachers aware of their children’ s agency in the community. Since the school that conducted the ACT was located in a municipality with relatively higher levels of environmental radiation contamination and had deliberate evacuation areas, it is possible that the teachers were more interested in our project aimed at better community development with children. The teachers’ enthusiasm may have created a positive iterative interaction with their students. Nevertheless, we observed similar effects of ACT in another project site outside Japan( Lloyd Williams A et al., 2023). ACT is potentially effective regardless of a disaster’ s impact, yet it plays an essential role in the recovery of disaster-affected areas, where its need has increased.
The new education guidelines in Japan 7 aim to develop children’ s active and interactive learning skills. The guidelines further state the importance of linking“ play” with education:“ ensure that the things developed through play as spontaneous activities in early childhood are smoothly connected to learning in all subjects”( MEXT, n. d.-b). Our Creative Health workshops provide children with a safe space and tools to explore and learn on their own. The skills of critical thinking, decision-making, and self-expression that are listed in the guidelines are included in the workshops, most explicitly in ACT. More than a decade after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, it is our hope that the implementation of Creative Health will promote creative and independent learning among schoolchildren, expand their capacity as independent citizens, and create resilience in their communities.