Building Competency in Diabetes Education THE ESSENTIALS

2-50 | CHAPTER 2

2. Adults accumulate many experiences over a lifetime, and these experiences are rich resources for learning. New learning should be referenced or connected to a past experience for greater assimilation. 3. Adults tend to have a problem-centred orientation to learning, and the information should have immediate application. Adults need to reflect on “What’s the problem? They need to learn what works/doesn’t work for them. They need to see how they can use this information or skill. Learning is goal directed as opposed to content driven. 4. Readiness to learn in an adult is often related to developmental tasks required for a social role. People like to know “What’s in it for me?”. Learning must be relevant to their situation. In further writings, Knowles suggested that adults have an internal motivation to learn (150). This is an important concept to consider when we review several strategies and techniques used in behaviour change in this chapter as well as in Chapter 11: Self-Management Education and Support: Program Development. Taxonomy of education objectives The taxonomy of educational objectives classifies educational interventions by type and level of learning (10,152-154). Awareness of the taxonomy will help you create a “blueprint” for a cohesive, coordinated educational program that includes opportunities to acquire various types of knowledge and skill: • Knowledge: The ability to recall facts, ideas and concepts, and to describe values, beliefs and attitudes. • Application: The ability to translate an idea, concept or belief into simple practice, following guidelines. • Critical thinking: The ability to critically analyze a situation, evaluate changing variables and make judgements and new decisions based on the unique relationships of ideas, values and concepts. There are many complex and confounding factors involved in diabetes self-care; for this reason, objectives have been delineated for levels of SME that incorporate the above taxonomy: survival (basic), intermediate and advanced (Figure 7) (see Appendix at the end of the chapter for an example). It is important that your educational team reaches a consensus on what the learning objectives should be for each level before you plan educational programs and services to address them.