Determinants of Learning
Dr. Belal Hijji, RN, PhD
February 28, 2012
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lecture, students will be able to
• Describe the role of the educator in the educational process.
• Identify and discuss the determinants of learning.
The Nurse Educator’s Role in Learning
• For a nurse to carry his/ her educative role well, s(h)e must
identify the information learners need, their readiness to learn,
and their learning styles. However, the learner remains the
single most important person in the educative process.
• The role of the educator is to enhance the learning process by
serving as a facilitator. The educator:
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assesses the learner’s deficits
presents appropriate information in unique ways.
identifies progress being made.
gives feedback
reinforces learning in the acquisition of knowledge, or
performance of a skill.
– evaluates the learner’s abilities
• The educator provides support, encouragement and direction
during the learning process.
Assessment of the Learner
• Often patients with the same condition are taught with the
same material and in the same way. Is this problematic? Why?
Yes, because:
– The information given to the patient is neither
individualised nor based on the educational assessment
• Nurses, frequently and firstly, delve [‫ ]يتعمقوا‬into teaching. Is
this problematic? Why? Yes, because:
– This approach neglects to address assessment of the learner
as an essential aspect of the instructional process.
• Nurses were always taught that their interventions are based
on sound assessment, and the same applies to the instructional
process.
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• Assessment of the learner includes attending to the three
determinants:
– Learning needs (what the learner needs to learn)
– Readiness to learn (when the learner is receptive to
learning)
– Learning style (how the learner best learns)
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Assessment of Learning Needs
• This must be examined first. Can we first assess readiness or
learning style? Why? No, because:
– there is no need to assess readiness and the learning style if
learning needs are not present
• Assessment is essential to determine learning needs so that an
instructional plan can be designed to address deficits in any of
the educational domains [Cognitive, psychomotor, affective].
• Not all individuals perceive a need for education. For example,
in a survey of nurses’ knowledge and practice of blood
transfusion in Jordan, 25 nurses (8%) had the perception that
they needed no further education in any of the areas related to
blood transfusion, although they had documented knowledge
deficits.
• Consequently, assessment is used to identify and priortise the
needs and interests of the learner.
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• Learning needs: are gaps in knowledge that exist between a
desired level of performance and the actual level of
performance
• The following are some important steps in the assessment of
learning needs:
– Identify the learner. Is there only one learner with a single need
or many needs? Is there more than one learner with congruent or
diverse needs?
– Choose the right setting: Establish trusting relationship through
assuring privacy and confidentiality, so that learners feel secure
in confiding information and feel respected.
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– Collect data on the learner: Determine characteristic needs of the
audience by exploring typical health problems or issues of
interest. Subsequently, identify the type and extent of content to
be included in the teaching sessions.
– Include the learner as a source of information: Allow the patient
and/or family and staff members to identify what is important to
them. If the learners are staff members or nursing students, ask
them about areas of practice they feel they need new or
additional information.
– Involve members of the healthcare team: Other healthcare
providers may have insight into patient, family, nursing staff,
and nursing students educational needs. Because of their
frequent contacts with them.
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– Priortise needs: A list of needs can become endless and
seemingly impossible to accomplish. Using Maslow’s hierarchy
of human needs, an educator can priortise identified learning
needs. The educator can then assist the learner to meet the most
important basic need first.
• Setting priorities for learning is often difficult when faced with
many learning needs in several areas. Learning must be priortised
based on the criteria of
– mandatory: Needs that must be learned for survival or
situations in which the learner’s life or safety is threatened. For
example, a patient with recent heart attack needs to know the
sign and symptoms and when to seek medical help. The
hospital nurse must learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
– desirable: Needs that are not life-dependant but are related to
well-being. For example, patients with cardiovascular disease
to understand the effects of a high fat diet on their health.
– possible: Needs for information that are nice to know but not
essential or required. For example, a patient with diabetes
mellitus dos not need to know about travelling across time
zones.
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– Determine availability of educational resources: After
identifying a need, it may useless to proceed with the
intervention if proper educational resources are not available.
For example, if an asthmatic patient needs to learn how to use a
ventolin inhaler, that learning cannot occur if this equipment is
not available for demonstration/ return demonstration.
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Methods to Assess Learning Needs
• The nurse educator must obtain objective data about, and
subjective data from, the learner. This can be achieved by
using one or more of the following methods:
– Informal conversation: Often, learning needs are identified
during informal talk with other healthcare providers, and
between the nurse and the patient/ family.
– Structured interviews: The nurse asks the patient direct and often
predetermined questions. Establishing trust, using open-ended
questions, quiet environment, and allowing the patient to state
what his learning needs are merit attention.
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– Focus groups: The educator gets together 4-12 learners to
determine areas of educational need. The educator leads the
discussion and asks open-ended questions.
– Self-administered questionnaires: the learner’s responses to
questions about learning needs can be obtained by selfadministered questionnaires. These are easy to administer and
provide more privacy than interviews.
– Tests: Written pre-tests given before teaching can help identify
the knowledge level of learners regarding a particular subject
matter and assist in identifying a specific needs of learner. Tests
are useful as they prevent the educator from repeating already
known material.
– Observation: Watching a learner perform a skill more than once
is an excellent way of assessing psychomotor need. Educators
can assess whether all steps are performed correctly.
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Readiness to Learn
• Definition: It is the time when the learner demonstrates an interest,
willingness, and ability to learn the type or degree of information
necessary to maintain optimal health or to become skillful in a job.
• The following factors must be taken into account before starting
teaching (PEEK):
– Physical readiness: Does the learner have enough strength and
ability to walk on crutches? Is the environment calm and
conducive to learning?
– Emotional readiness: Fear contributes to anxiety and negatively
affects readiness to learn. A nursing student may not master a
skill because of fear of harming a patient or of failure to perform
correctly.
– Experiential readiness: The educator, before starting teaching,
should assess whether past learning experiences were negative or
positive in overcoming problems. A learner who had negative
learning experience is not likely to be motivated to change
behaviour or acquire new behaviours.
– Knowledge readiness: The educator needs to find out how much
a learner knows about a topic and how proficient in performing a
task.
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Learning styles
• These refer to the ways individuals process information. The
types of learning styles are:
– visual: A student learns by reading a material, and uses visual
material such as charts, pictures, maps.
– auditory: A student learns by listening, participates in
discussions, makes speeches and presentations, and reads the text
aloud.
– kinesthetic: A student learns by touching or doing.
SOURCE:
www.tarleton.edu/ssp/documents/Week10sL
earingStyles.ppt
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