Discussion Board
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Identifying Learner Needs
Assessing Individuals
~Assessment of Learner Assets, Capacity and Readiness
~Factors That Influence Learning
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Objectives
- Discuss the learning process
- Describe factors that influence the learning process
- Identify individual learner needs
- Describe the assessment of learner assets, capacity and readiness
- Discuss the impact of learning styles
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
The Learning Process
- Learning relies on acquisition of different types of knowledge supported by perceived information.
- It leads to the development of new capacities, skill, values, understanding and preferences.
- Its goal is the increase of knowledge and experience.
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
The Learning Process
- The process of learning is influenced by a variety of factors.
- A thorough knowledge of these factors will be helpful in guiding learning for individuals and communities in health education.
- Assessing learner assets (during needs assessment) will help to “paint the picture” or your target population.
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Factors That Influence Learning
There are multiple factors that influence learning on the individual level:
- Attitudes
- Beliefs
- Cultural background
- Knowledge/Educational level
- Experience (personal and professional)
- Can you think of others?
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Attitudes or beliefs that hinder learning
- Lack of understanding or knowledge of application of information
- Learner may seem uninterested because they don’t know what to ask or don’t yet realize that they will need information.
- Belief that subject matter is irrelevant to the individual or does not apply
- Boredom or lack of desire to learn
- Fatigue - mental exhaustion or physical tiredness - can decrease efficiency or ability to learn
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Attitudes or beliefs that promote learning
- Emotional condition can enhance the quality and speed of learning (happiness, joy, satisfaction). Adverse emotional condition can hinder learning.
- An attitude that is alert and attentive will be favorable and enable student to learn.
- General interest in subject matter can positively motivate learning.
- Personal experience can make information relevant.
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
What Promotes Your Learning?
List factors that have helped to create positive learning environment for you from your past experiences in class, professional setting or during community outreach:
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Assessment of Learner Assets, Capacity and Readiness
- Developmental assessment
- Motivation
- Emotional intelligence
- Multicultural assessment
- Environment
- Literacy assessment
- Readiness to learn
- Learning styles
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Assessment of Learner Assets, Capacity and Readiness
- Developmental assessment - Learning is directly dependent upon age and maturation. Emotional maturation also impacts learning.
- Motivation – This is the heart of learning process. It generates the will to do something. Two types of motivation are commonly recognized:
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Assessment of Learner Assets, Capacity and Readiness
Two types of motivation:
- Intrinsic- this type arises when resolution of the tension is to be found in mastering the learning task itself. The desire to learn material originates from internal source and provides its own reward.
- Extrinsic-occurs when student pursues learning task but for reasons that are external or outside of self.
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Assessment of Learner Assets, Capacity and Readiness
- Emotional intelligence - The capacity of individuals to recognize their own and other people's emotions, to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior.
- Intelligence is positively related to learning, however high IQ itself is no guarantee for learning.
- Multicultural assessment – Cultural beliefs or customs can impact interest or relevancy of information.
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Assessment of Learner Assets, Capacity and Readiness
Environmental factors:
- Surroundings
- Relationship with peers, teacher
- Media influence
- Physical space for learning (home, classroom, etc.)
- Support system
- Access to resources
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Assessment of Learner Assets, Capacity and Readiness
Environmental factors:
- Sensation and perception are psychological factors which help in learning. There are 5 senses – touch, sound, taste, sight and smell.
- These senses help in the perception of various stimuli in the environment and can in turn impact learning, or retaining of knowledge.
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Assessment of Learner Assets, Capacity and Readiness
- Literacy assessment – Reading ability (health literacy) can impact ability to understand and retain information.
- Readiness to learn – Start with information that the learner wants to know. First step may be to raise awareness, then wait until information is immediately useful to learner.
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Assessment of Learner Assets, Capacity and Readiness
Assessing Readiness to Learn
- Questions you might ask include:
- How do you feel about making the changes we’ve discussed?
- What changes would you like to work on now?
- Are there any problems that would prevent you from learning right now?
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Learning Styles
- A common concept is that individuals differ in how they learn. Each person learns at different rate and different style.
- Learning styles refers to a range of contested theories that aim to account for differences in individuals‘ learning.
- These theories propose that all people can be classified according to their ‘style' of learning, although the various theories present differing views on how styles should be defined and categorized.
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Learning Styles
- Determining learning style involves assessing how individual learns best, when they learn best and how able they are to learn what they need to know.
- Finding out whether they learn best by hearing, reading, or hands-on learning is important.
Let’s do the LSI!
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Scholarly Resource on LSI
- The Learning Style Inventory (LSI) is connected with David Kolb's model and is used to determine learning style. Previous versions of LSI have been criticized for problems with validity, reliability, and other issues. Version 4 replaces the four learning styles of previous versions with nine new learning styles: initiating, experiencing, imagining, reflecting, analyzing, thinking, deciding, acting, and balancing. The LSI is intended to help students "understand how their learning style impacts upon problem solving, teamwork, handling conflict, communication and career choice; develop more learning flexibility; find out why teams work well—or badly—together; strengthen their overall learning.“
Source: http://www.businessballs.com/kolblearningstyles.htm
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Principles to Apply
- How can we be more proficient in identifying needs of our community?
- What role does assessing learner capacity play in conducting needs assessment?
- Learners may not realize what information is pertinent to their health.
- Information that raises awareness will help identify major issues.
- How will you encourage motivation to learn?
- Open-ended questions may help to facilitate understanding needs
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers
Summary
Discuss to what extent factors that influence learner assets, needs and capacity are linked directly or indirectly to needs assessments in the field of health education and/or community outreach.
© 2009 Jones and Bartlett Publishers