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How to answer students’ questions
When speaking to a student about contraception, you must ensure that you have relevant, credible, and verifiable information to hand.
The main section of this website contains a wealth of useful information about all the common methods of contraception. This will allow you to familiarize yourself with the various advantages and disadvantages of each method, which in turn, will allow you to communicate factual, impartial advice to your student. For more information, click here. Emergency contraception is also briefly discussed in this section.
The website also contains essential advice about avoiding STIs, and the importance of practicing safe sex. For more information, click here.
You may also find the following general tips useful when addressing this somewhat sensitive topic in the classroom:
- Provide encouragement and affirmation to the student who asked the question (e.g. ''That's a good question…”)
- ‘Normalise' the question (e.g. ''Many students ask this...'')
- Answer the factual information part of the question first (e.g. statistics on local teenage pregnancy rates)
- Address any emotive issues that may arise (e.g. ''This can be quite an embarrassing topic, but it is also an important one...'')
- Identify whether any aspects of the answer can only be based on personal preference (e.g. “This varies from person to person and there is no set answer, but the options are…”
- Be honest if you don’t know the answer, but always try to find out and get back to the student as soon as possible.
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