Characteristic of the

Learners
 Nurse Educator’s Role in Learning

• Assess the needs of learner

• Assess problems and deficits

• Recognize factors involved in readiness to learn

• Correlate teaching interventions with learning styles to maximize opportunities for

learning
• Provide appropriate information and present it in unique ways
• Identify progress of learning
• Give feedback and follow-up
• Reinforce learning towards acquisition of KAS
• Evaluate learners’ abilities
 Learner is the 1. Assessment of the learner –
single most
knowing the characteristic of the
Icon

important person is
learner
education process.
Learning occurs Icon
o Culture
without an o Literacy
educator. An o Age
educator enhanced o Educational level
learning by
facilitating
o Health status
education to occur. Icon
o Socio-economic
2. Understand determinants of learning
• Learning needs – what learner
needs to learn
• Readiness to learn – when learner
is receptive to learning
• Learning style – how learner best
learn
• Assessing learning needs
• Will determine design of
instructional plan to address the
need for cognitive, affective or
psychomotor development of the
learner
•Learning Needs – are gaps in
knowledge that exist between
the desired level of
performance and actual level
of performance
Steps in Assessment of Learning Needs

1. Identify the learner

E.g. Who is the audience? Is there a single or multiple needs to fulfill?

2. Choose the right setting

• Establish trusting environment

• Ensure privacy and confidentiality

3. Collect data on the learner

• Identify the learner and collect additional information from the population e.g. health problems

4. Include learner as a source of information

5. Involve members of healthcare team

6. Prioritize needs

• Use Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs

• Discriminate what learners need to know? And what is nice to know?

7. Determine availability of educational resources

8. Assess demands of the organization

• Determine the organization’s philosophy, mission, vision, strategic plan and goals

• Familiarization to standards of performance required, job descriptions and hospital regulations

9. Take time management issues into account

 Methods to Assess Learning Needs
The nurse educator must obtain objective and subjective data from the learner:

1. Informal conversation-impromptu conversations

2. Structured interviews

3. Focus groups- 4 to 12 (same age, gender, past experience)

4. Self-administered Questionnaires- self assessment

5. Tests- pre tests

6. Observations

7. Patient Charts
 Readiness to learn

– time when the learner

demonstrates an interest in
learning information
necessary to maintain
optimal health
Nurse educators must think what needs to be
learned?
What is the learning objectives?
Which domain and at what level of learning
objectives are these objective classified.
Thus, preventing the objectives to go beyond
the learner’s readiness to learn.
Timing – the point at which teaching
must take place; anything affected
by physical and psychological
comfort can affect learner’s ability
and readiness to learn
 Four Types of Readiness to Learn

P – Physical Readiness
• Measures of ability E – Experiential Readiness
• Complexity of task • Level of aspiration
• Environmental effects • Past coping mechanisms
• Health status
• Gender • Cultural background
• Locus of control
• orientation
E – Emotional Readiness
•
•
Anxiety level
Support system
K – Knowledge Readiness
• Motivation • Present knowledge base
• Risk taking behavior • Cognitive ability
• Frame of mind
• Developmental stage • Learning disabilities
• Learning styles
• Learning style – refers to the ways
individual process information; or individual
preferences to learn
• Learning style models – are based from
characteristics that are biological in origin,
and sociologically developed as result of
environment differences
 6 Learning Style Principles

1. The style by which the teacher and student prefers to learn can be identified

2. Teachers need to guard against over teaching their own preferred learning
styles

3. Teachers are most helpful when they assist students in identifying and
learning through the own style preferences

4. Students should have the opportunity to learn through their preferred style

5. Students should be encouraged to diversify their style preferences

6. Teachers can develop specific learning activities that reinforce each

modality or style
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THANK YOU!