DETERMINANTS
OF LEARNING
Divina Gracia Vibal Cielo BSM-II
DISCUSSION HIGHLIGHTS
• Educator’s Role in Learning
• Assessment of the Learner
• Assessing Learning Needs
• Methods to Assess Learning Needs
• Readiness to Learn
• Short Intro: Learning Style
OBJECTIVES
After completing this discussion, the reader will be able to:
1. State the educator’s role in the learning process.
2. Identify the three components of what is known as
“determinants of learning.”
3. Describe the steps involved in the assessment of learning
needs.
4. Explain methods that can be used to assess learner needs.
5. Discuss the factors that need to be assessed in each of the
four types of readiness to learn.
6. Describe what is meant by learning styles.
EDUCATOR’S ROLE IN
LEARNING
• Assessing problems or deficits.
• Providing appropriate information and presenting it in
unique ways.
• Identifying progress being made.
• Giving feedback and follow-up.
• Reinforcing learning in the acquisition of knowledge, the
performance of a skill, or a change in attitude.
• Evaluating learners’ abilities.
ASSESSMENT OF THE
LEARNER
Assessment of the learner includes attending to the
three DETERMINANTS OF LEARNING (Haggard, 1989):
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)
ASSESSING
LEARNING
NEEDS QUESTIONS:
• What is assessment?
• What are the purposes of
assessing the learning needs?
• What is the task of an educator?
• How do you understand the
word “learning needs” or how
do you define it?
LEARNING NEEDS
– Learning needs are defined as gaps in knowledge
that exist between a desired level of performance
and the actual level of performance.
– A learning need is the gap between what someone
knows and what someone needs to know. Such
gaps exist because of a lack of knowledge, attitude,
or skill.
STEPS IN ASSESSING
LEARNING NEEDS
1. Identify the learner.
2. Choose the right setting.
3. Collect data on the learner.
4. Include the learner as a source of information.
5. Involve members of the healthcare team.
6. Prioritize needs.
7. Determine availability of educational resources.
8. Assess demands of the organization.
9. Take time-management issues into account.
METHODS TO
ASSESS
LEARNING NEEDS
QUESTIONS:
• What kind of data that an
educator can be use in
assessment?
• Why methods are important
during assessment?
METHODS IN ASSESSING
LEARNING NEEDS
1. Informal Conversation
2. Structured Interviews
3. Focus groups
4. Self-administered questionnaires
5. Tests (Written pretests)
6. Observations (Observing health behaviors in several
different time periods)
7. Patient Charts
8. Assessing Learning Needs of Staff
READINESS TO
LEARN
QUESTIONS:
• Why readiness to learn must be
done?
• Do you think “timing” is
important in readiness to
learn? And why?
READINESS TO LEARN
– Readiness to learn can be defined as the time when the
learner demonstrates an interest in learning the type or
degree of information necessary to maintain optimal health or
to become more skillful in a job.
– Readiness to learn occurs when the learner is receptive to
learning and is willing and able to participate in the learning
process.
FOUR TYPES OF
Several physical factors related to readiness
need to be considered by the educator
because they may have an adverse effect on
READINESS TO
the degree to which learning will occur.
LEARN The learner must be emotionally ready to
learn.
Readiness to learn can be
Experiential readiness refers to the learner’s
determined by the learner’s past experiences with learning.
characteristics as follows: Physical
readiness, Emotional readiness,
Experiential readiness, and Refers to the learner's present knowledge
base, the level of learning capability, and
Knowledge readiness. (PEEK) the preferred style of learning.
P (PHYSICAL READINESS)
– Measures of Ability: Requires gross movements using the large muscles
of the body, then adequate strength, flexibility, and endurance must be
present.
– Complexity of task: Educator must take into account the difficulty level of
the subject or task to be mastered by the learner.
– Environmental Effects: An environment conducive to learning will help to
keep the learner’s attention and stimulate interest in learning.
– Health Status: Is important to determine the amount of energy available as
well as present comfort level—both of these factors heavily influence one’s
readiness to learn.
– Gender: Women are generally more receptive to medical care and take
fewer risks to their health than men.
E (EMOTIONAL READINESS)
Measures
–– Anxiety of Ability:
Level: Depending Requires gross
on the level movements
of anxiety, it mayusing
or may thenot
large
be amuscles
hindrance
ofthe
to thelearning
body, then adequate
of new skills. strength, flexibility, and endurance must be
present.System: The availability and strength of a support system also influence
– Support
Complexity
– emotional of task:
readiness andEducator
are closelymust
tied take
to howinto account
anxious the difficulty
someone level of
might feel.
the subject The
– Motivation: or task to be mastered
motivation byon
and interest the learner.
the part of the learner to achieve a task
– also lead to more meaningful
Environmental Effects: An teaching–learning
environment conduciveexperiences.to learning will help to
keep the learner’s
– Risk-Taking Behavior: attention
Taking and
risksstimulate
is intrinsicinterest in learning.
in the activities people perform
– daily.
HealthMany activities
Status: are done without
Is important thinkingthe
to determine about the outcome.
amount of energy available as
– Frame
well asofpresent
Mind: Involves
comfortconcern aboutofthe
level—both herefactors
these and now. If survival
heavily is of primary
influence one’s
concern,
readinessthento readiness
learn. to learn will be focused on meeting basic human needs.
–– Developmental Stage: Each task associated with human development produces a
Gender: Women are generally more receptive to medical care and take
peak time for readiness to learn, known as a “teachable moment”.
fewer risks to their health than men.
E (EXPERIENTIAL READINESS)
– Level of Aspiration: The extent to which someone is driven to achieve is related to the
type of short- and long-term goals established, not by the educator, but by the learner.
– Past Coping Mechanisms: The coping mechanisms someone has been using must be
explored to understand how the learner has dealt with previous problems.
– Cultural Background: Knowledge on the part of the educator about other cultures and
being sensitive to behavioral differences between cultures are important to avoid
teaching in opposition to cultural beliefs.
– Locus of Control: Whether readiness to learn comes from internal stimuli (Internal
locus of control/Intrinsic) or external stimuli (External locus of control /Extrinsic) can be
determined by ascertaining the learner’s previous life patterns of responsibility and
assertiveness.
– Orientation: The tendency to adhere to a parochial (close-minded) or cosmopolitan
(more worldly perspective) point of view is known as orientation.
K (KNOWLEDGE READINESS)
– Present Knowledge Base: How much someone already knows about a particular
subject or how proficient that person is at performing a task is an important factor to
determine before designing and implementing instruction.
– Cognitive Ability: The extent to which information can be processed is indicative
of the level at which the learner is capable of learning.
– Learning Disabilities: Other than those deficits caused by mental retardation,
learning disabilities and low-level reading skills are not necessarily indicative of an
individual’s intellectual abilities but will require special or innovative approaches to
instruction to sustain or bolster readiness to learn.
– Learning Styles: A variety of preferred styles of learning exist, and assessing how
someone learns best will help the educator to select teaching approaches
accordingly.
~END~
Maslow’s
Hierarchy
of Needs
CRITERIA FOR PRIORITIZING
THE LEARNING NEEDS
– MANDATORY: Needs that must be learned for survival or
situations in which the learner’s life or safety is threatened.
Learning needs in this category must be met immediately.
– DESIRABLE: Needs that are not life-dependent but are related
to well-being or the overall ability to provide quality care in
situations involving changes in institutional procedure.
– POSSIBLE: Needs for information that are “nice to know” but
not essential or required or situations in which the learning
need is not directly related to daily activities.
