Determinants of Learning: Learning Needs

The importance of assessment of the learner may seem self-evident, but often only lip service is
given to this phase of the educational process.

Often patients with the same condition are taught with the same materials in the same way.

- Determine the learning needs according to the situation of the learner or the patient

The result is that information given to the patient is neither individualized nor based on the
educational assessment. Frequently, the nurse delves into teaching before addressing all of the
determinants of learning.

Nursing assessment of needs, readiness, and styles of learning is the first and most important
step in instructional design – but it is also the step most often neglected.
For years, nurses have been taught that any nursing intervention should be preceded by an
assessment.

Good assessments ensure that optimal learning will occur with the least amount of stress and
anxiety for the learner. Assessment prevents needless repetition of known material, saves time
and energy on the part of both the learner and the educator, and helps to establish rapport
between the two parties.

Assessment of the learner includes attending to the three determinants:

1. learning needs (what the learner needs to learn)
2. readiness to learn (when the learner is receptive to learning)
3. learning style (how the learner best learns)

ASSESSING LEARNING NEEDS

Of the three determinants, learning needs must be examined first because there may be no
reason to assess readiness to learn or learnings styles if, by chance, learning needs are non-
existent. Assessment is essential to determine learning needs so that an instructional plan can
be designed to address deficits in any of the cognitive, affective, or psychomotor domains.

The purposes of assessing learning needs are to discover what has to be taught and to
determine the extent of instruction or if instruction is necessary at all.

The ff. are important steps in the assessment of 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 resource
8. Assess demands of the organization
9. Take time-management issues into account
- be effective and efficient in conducting initial assessment
- focus in conducting e and e through active listening rather than discovering the factors that
prevented the progress
- give the learners time to be actively involved in the learning experience
- Let them express their perceptions and view for active participation
- Assessment can be anytime and anywhere
- can conduct follow up
- set another schedule if needed to elaborate issues and concerns, if there is opportunity for us
to conduct assessment of learning needs and HE
- inform ahead of time if you will conduct HE
- minimize distractions
- set specific time

METHODS TO ASSESS LEARNING NEEDS

- Informal conversations
- Structured interviews
- Focus groups
- Self-administered questionnaires
- Tests
- Observations
- Patient charts

Assessing Learning Needs of Nursing Staff

- Written job descriptions

- Formal and informal requests
- Quality assurance reports
- Chart audits
- Rules and regulations
- Four-step appraisal of needs

Determinants of Learning: Readiness to learn

Once the learning needs have been identified, the next step is to determine the learner’s
readiness to receive information.

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.

Often, educators have noted that when a patient or staff member asks a question, the time is
prime for learning.
Readiness to learn occurs when the learner is receptive to learning and is willing and able to
participate in the learning process. The educator must never overuse the expression “the patient
is not ready to learn.”

Take Time to Take a PEEK at the

Four Types of Readiness to Learn

P = Physical Readiness
■ Measures of ability
■ Complexity of task
■ Environmental effects
■ Health status
■ Gender

E = Emotional Readiness
■ Anxiety level
■ Support system
■ Motivation
■ Risk-taking behavior
■ Frame of mind
■ Developmental stage

E = Experiential Readiness
■ Level of aspiration
■ Past coping mechanisms
■ Cultural background
■ Locus of control

K = Knowledge Readiness
■ Present knowledge base
■ Cognitive ability
■ Learning disabilities
■ Learning styles

Determinants of Learning: Learning Styles

Learning style refers to the ways individual process information

Each learner is unique and complex, with a distinct learning style preference that distinguishes
one learner from another

6 Learning Style Principles

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

2. Teachers need to guard against over teaching by their own preferred learning styles
3. Teachers are most helpful when they assist students in identifying and learning through their
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