4 Principles Of Learning

[Leontina Heidgerken]

Thisstudy session examines the principles of learning and why they are important within your role as a Health Extension Practitioner. It considers the key characteristics of learning and how they influence the health education activities that you will develop. In doing so it illustrates the similarities and differences in the ways both adults and children learn and how consideration of these can inform your practice in the delivery of health education. Drawing upon psychological, physical and environmental factors and teaching methodologies, this session identifies the factors that influence the learning process and how knowledge of these will help you when you are planning your health education programmes.

The word education means to gain general theoretical knowledge and this may or may not involve learning how to do any specific practical work, tasks or skills. Education also refers to a process of training or receiving tuition. Usually basic training in health services is a combination of theoretical, educational and practical learning skills.

Learning is also social, because it takes place in response to the environment in which there are other individuals as well as physical things. Each learner is unique and has needs and problems not exactly like others. In other words, some have well developed intellectual abilities and others may be less able; some are skilled in self-expression, while others have difficulty; some are slow to learn, but others may be quick; some are sociable while others are shy and retiring. An effective health educator must consider the variations and differences among learners and provide health information accordingly.

Learning is self-active this principle embodies the idea that a learner learns through their own activities. Learning is a personal process. Self-active learning includes listening, visualising, recalling, memorising, reasoning, using your judgment and thinking. In your role as a health educator you will be expected to guide, direct and select different types of learning activities based on what you want your audience to learn from your health education session. Hence, you are expected to encourage active engagement of the audience in the learning process.

Learning is creative. For each individual, learning is not merely a summing up of previous knowledge and experience, it is a creative putting together of all the knowledge and experience of the learner (Figure 6.2).

Learning is transferable: Transferable learning means that whatever is learned in one context or situation will also apply in another context or situation. For example, the knowledge about the utilisation of some services such as antenatal care (ANC) will also be applied to the utilisation of other health services as well. This characteristic of learning strongly implies that Health Extension Practitioners should be very careful while passing out information since bad or inaccurate information about one issue may be transferred to other types of knowledge, and it may seriously affect the future health behaviour of individuals in your community.

In the last six paragraphs some characteristics of learning that have important implications for your health education activities have been outlined. List at least three of those characteristics of learning, making sure you are clear about what each of them imply. If you are not sure then go back and read the paragraphs again.

As a member of your community, you have been living closely with mothers and children and you will have also observed how children explore and learn from their surroundings. Based on that you can get some useful ideas about learning by thinking about how babies and young children learn. They often have confidence in themselves and are still full of the joy of learning (Figure 6.3). At their best adults also learn in similar ways.

Most of the time adults follow the same general patterns of learning as children do. Just read through Box 6.1 again and think about the sequence of learning. But while there are similarities between child and adult learning, there are also additional features of adult learning, that will help you while planning and conducting your health education sessions.

Principles of learning, also known as laws of learning, are readiness, exercise, effect, primacy, recency, intensity and freedom. These are discussed below and they should help you in designing and conducting your health education sessions.

The principle of exercise states that those things that are most often repeated are the ones that are best remembered. Your audience will learn best and retain information longer when they have meaningful practice and repetition. It is clear that practice leads to improvement only when it is followed by positive feedback.

The human mind is forgetful and it can rarely retain, evaluate, and apply new concepts or practices after a single exposure. Audiences will not learn complex tasks in a single session. They learn by applying what they have been told and shown. Every time practice occurs, learning continues. The health educator must repeat important items of subject matter at reasonable intervals and provide opportunities for the audience to practice while making sure that this process is directed towards learning something new.

One of the important obligations of the health educator is to set up the learning situation in such a manner that each person being taught will be able to see evidence of their own progress and achieve some degree of success.

The principle of recency states that things most recently learned are best remembered. Conversely, the further a learner is removed time-wise from a new fact or understanding, the more difficult it is to remember. For example, it is easier for a mother to recall what children were fed this morning than to remember what they were fed three days ago.

The more intense the material taught, the more likely it will be retained. A sharp, clear, dramatic, or exciting learning experience teaches more than a routine or boring experience. The principle of intensity implies that a learner will learn more from the real thing than from a substitute.

The principle of freedom states that things freely learned are best learned. Conversely, if the audience is forced to learn something, the more difficult it is for them to learn. Compulsion and forcing are not favorable for personal growth. For example, if you force a family to construct a latrine in their compound, they may not be interested to do that. However if you motivate them to do that through proper education of the family, they are more likely to construct the latrines and use them properly.

This has been a long section and there are a lot of things to remember. But, just as with teaching others, you will improve your chances of absorbing all of this by thinking about it again now. So assume that you are planning to conduct a health education session on a new technology, such as how to use a new insecticide for the prevention of malaria in your community. Which of the principles of adult learning would be best for you to use when planning your health education sessions if the following situations were to occur?

The physiological factors include how people feel, their physical health, and their levels of fatigue at the time of learning, the quality of the food and drink they have consumed, their age, etc.

People find it very difficult try to learn new things if they are in a difficult environment. Atmospheric conditions such as high temperature and humidity tend to lower mental efficiency. Studying in conditions of poor ventilation, the lack of proper lighting, where there is noise and physical discomfort, all hamper learning capacity. Good conditions make it easier to learn (Figure 6.6).

Imagine that you are teaching a family about the importance of environmental sanitation. What would you say about the following statements in regard to their effect on the effectiveness of your teaching? Which of the physiological factors are responsible for their effect on the learning process for each of the following?

Most people have times in their life when they are particularly motivated to study. Perhaps this was while you were at school and really wanted to get good grades? Or now, as you are developing your role as a Health Extension Practitioner?

In general, for motivation to take place in health education sessions, learning should be purposeful and meaningful, and the audience should be interested in the health issue being discussed during the session. Encouragement and praise stimulate learning of health-related skills (Figure 6.7). You will need to encourage the people to whom you are giving your health education messages.

The key environmental factors when delivering your health education messages are the conditions where the learners have to sit to do their learning. Learning is hampered by bad environmental conditions such as distraction, noise, poor illumination, bad ventilation, overcrowding and inconvenient seating arrangements.

The location of the health education setting, the internal set up, the accommodation, decoration and sanitary conditions are all very important for efficient learning. The organisational set up of the health education setting also influences learning. For example, if you are giving a health education session in your Health Post, and if the room is very overcrowded with healthy as well as sick individuals, some of them sitting on the floor and others by the door, this would hamper the learning among all of the attendants.

For example, if you want to teach a mother about proper position and attachment for breastfeeding, it is good first to demonstrate the correct position to the mother. You can then test whether she has learnt this correctly by asking her to demonstrate the proper positioning and attachment back to you. You should encourage her to practice it until she gets it right. This should continuously be accompanied by your comments and feedback on her level of achievement.

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