Sexual health is a new and important area for social educator students to address, but the topic is often included in the education to a small extent. Therefore it is valuable to find new perspectives of including sexual health in various ways in the courses in the social educators program. Integration of ongoing research projects in sexual health when teaching scientific theory can improve students' subject-related skills, expertise in research methodology, and critical assessment of research results. The intervention also presents an opportunity to deepen reflections on social educator students´ attitudes towards addressing sexual health with users.

The triple aim of this pilot study was to test research-oriented teaching, enhance learning about sexual health, and to explore the validity of the SASH-Ext questionnaire.

Integration with theoretical education, of the research project was carried out alongside testing of face validity and content validity, as well as a group discussions with social educator students. A teaching session on sexual health was also conducted. The psychometric results of the study were presented to the students after the psychometric tests.

The students appreciated the research-oriented teaching and the results showed educational needs concerning sexual health, and were useful for the psychometric development of SA-SH-Ext.

The study shows promising findings both with regard to the students' learning outcomes, and the validation of SA-SH-Ext, but must be followed up by additional research.