Generative AI · Education leadership

Actionable companion · Staff capability and AI literacy

From evidence to district action: A Pilot Study on the Feasibility and Usability of a Midwife-Led Visual Educational Tool for Sex Education

AI-assisted editorial implementation guide. The district actions are proposed applications, not findings or recommendations attributed to the original authors. No additional peer review is asserted.

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Evidence and context

Confirm the study population, setting and task before applying its findings to your district.

Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the linked source license:

Abstract Enhancing sexual literacy through sex education from an early age is vital for preventing unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. The “Beginning of Life” section of sex education presents a crucial opportunity to educate students on fertilization and fetal development. This study aimed to determine the feasibility and usability of the Beans Education Project Card (BEPC), a novel teaching tool for this section, in a real-world educational setting. Five midwives with sex education experience were provided with the BEPC for use with elementary, middle, and high school students over an approximate 3-month period (October 2024 to January 2025). Subsequently, group interviews were conducted with the midwives to gather feedback on the design, feasibility, and usability of the tool. The interview transcripts were analyzed using qualitative analysis, with large language model-assisted thematic exploration employed as a supplementary method to identify key themes. The analysis showed that the BEPC was highly regarded for its visual appeal, ease of use, and potential to engage families. The hierarchical design and visual representations, such as the use of small holes and beans to represent different stages of fetal development, were particularly effective in facilitating student understanding. The findings suggest that the BEPC has the potential to be a visually engaging tool for interactively teaching the process of fertilization and fetal development in the “Beginning of Life” part of sex education. Future research should focus on collaborations with parents and the development of strategies for reaching out to absent or home-schooled students. Keywords: midwife, sex education, pilot study

A 90-day district pilot

  1. Days 1–15 · Appraise. Have the curriculum lead and a teacher read the methods and limitations. Record the study design, sample, comparator, outcomes and evidence gaps. Define a local question that the study can help inform.
  2. Days 16–30 · Design. Run a staff workshop using three authentic lesson-planning tasks. Ask participants to identify hallucinations, revise outputs and document when they reject the tool. Name an accountable owner and set the baseline, success threshold and budget before implementation.
  3. Days 31–60 · Test. Start with a small voluntary cohort, preserve an accessible non-AI route and require teacher review. Use synthetic or de-identified examples; approve data handling and tool terms through district processes.
  4. Days 61–90 · Decide. Measure error-detection accuracy before and after training, preparation time and the quality of the final lesson plans. Compare with baseline, document uncertainty and stop or revise if learning worsens, access is unequal or critical errors persist.

The board decision brief

Report the learning problem, evidence quality, participating population, total cost including review time, measured benefit, errors, access differences and remaining uncertainties. Make a dated recommendation to stop, revise or expand. A positive perception survey alone does not establish learning improvement.

Attribution and reuse

Mayu Tokuoka; Hisao Nakai; Nobuki Shimaoka. A Pilot Study on the Feasibility and Usability of a Midwife-Led Visual Educational Tool for Sex Education. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2025-12-23). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph23010024

Companion prepared 2026-10-30. Original authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract is an attributed source extract; the implementation plan is new AI-assisted editorial material, offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license. This guide has not undergone independent peer review.