Western Mindanao State University

COLLEGE OF NURSING

Zamboanga City

NCM 102 – HEALTH EDUCATION

Topic 1

Principles and Theories in Teaching and Learning

B. Principles of Teaching and Learning Related to Health

1. Developmental Stages of the Learner Across the Lifespan

2. Principles of Teaching and Learning

Developmental Characteristics

✓ chronological age versus stage of development

Example: children with chronic illness often are delayed developmentally; an adolescent who
suffers a traumatic event may regress developmentally

Rationale: chronological age per se is not a good predictor of learning ability. At any given age,
there can be a wide variation in physical, cognitive and psychological variables. Developmental
stage acknowledges that human growth and development are sequential, but not always
specifically age-related.

❖ DEVELOPMENTTAL STAGES OF CHILDHOOD

Pedagogy is the art and science of helping children learn

-infancy and toddlerhood
-preschooler
-school-aged child
-adolescent

INFANCY AND TODDLERHOOD

Piaget: Sensorimotor Stage

-learning is through sensory experiences and through movement and manipulation of objects

Erikson: Trust vs Mistrust (birth to 12 months); Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (1-3 years)
-building trust and establishing balance between feelings of love and hate; learning to control
willful desires

Salient Characteristics

-Cognitive:

Example: responds to step-by-step commands; language skills develop rapidly during this stage
 Western Mindanao State University

COLLEGE OF NURSING

Zamboanga City

NCM 102 – HEALTH EDUCATION

-Psychosocial

Example: aggravated by personal and external limits; routines provide sense of security

Teaching Strategies

-focus on normal development, safety, health promotion and disease prevention

-use repetition and imitation
-stimulate the senses
-provide safety
-allow for play and manipulation of objects

PRESCHOOLER

Piaget: Preoperational Stage

-egocentric; thinking is literal and concrete; precausal thinking

Erikson: Initiative vs Guilt

-taking on tasks for the sake of being involved and on the move; learning to express feelings
through play

Salient Characteristics

-Cognitive:

Example: animistic thinking; limited sense of time; egocentric; transductive reasoning

-Psychosocial:

Example: separation anxiety; play is his/her work; fears loss of body integrity; active
imagination; interacts with playmates

Teaching Strategies
-build trust
-allow for manipulation of objects
-use positive reinforcement
-encourage questions
-provide simple drawings and stories
-focus on play therapy
-stimulate senses
 Western Mindanao State University

COLLEGE OF NURSING

Zamboanga City

NCM 102 – HEALTH EDUCATION

SCHOOL-AGED CHILD

Piaget: Concrete Operations Stage

-developing logical thought process and ability to reason syllogistically; understands cause and
effect

Erikson: Industry vs Inferiority

-gaining a sense of responsibility and reliability; increased susceptibility to social forces outside
the family unit; gaining awareness of uniqueness of special talents and qualities

Salient Characteristics

-Cognitive:

Example: ablet to draw conclusions and intellectually can understand cause and effect

-Psychosocial:

Example: fears failure and being left our of groups; fears illness and disability

Teaching Strategies

-encourage independence
-use logical explanations and analogies
-related to child’s experience
-use subject-centered focus
-use play therapy
-provide group activities
-use drawings, models, dolls, painting, audiotapes and videotapes

ADOLESCENT

Piaget: Formal Operations Stage

-abstract thought; reasoning is both inductive and deductive

Erikson: Identity vs Role Confusion

-struggling to establish own identity; seeking independence and autonomy

Salient Characteristics

-Cognitive:
 Western Mindanao State University

COLLEGE OF NURSING

Zamboanga City

NCM 102 – HEALTH EDUCATION

Example: propositional thinking; complex logical reasoning; can build on past experiences;
conceptualizes the invisible
-Psychosocial:

Example: Personal fable-feels invulnerable, invulnerable, invincible/immune to natural laws

Example: Imaginary audience- intense personal preoccupation

Teaching Strategies

-establish trust
-identify control focus
-use peers for support and influence
-negotiate for changes, contract
-focus on details
-make information meaningful to life
-ensure confidentiality, role play, contracts, reading materials
-allow for experimentation and flexibility within safe limits

❖ ADULTHOOD

-Young Adult
-Middle-Aged Adulthood
-Older Adulthood

Teaching and Learning

-Andragogy: the art and science of helping adults learn

-Adult Learning Principles: relates learning to immediate needs; self-directed; teacher is

facilitator; learner desires active role

YOUNG ADULTHOOD

Piaget: Formal Operations Stage (begins in adolescence and carries through adulthood)
-abstract thought; reasoning is both inductive and deductive

Erikson: Intimacy vs Isolation

-focusing on relationships and commitment to others in their personal, occupational, and social
lives

Salient Characteristics

-Cognitive:
 Western Mindanao State University

COLLEGE OF NURSING

Zamboanga City

NCM 102 – HEALTH EDUCATION

Example: cognitive capacity is fully developed, but continuing to accumulate new knowledge
and skills
-Psychosocial

Example: autonomous; independent stress related to the many decisions being made regarding
career, marriage, parenthood, and higher education

Teaching Strategies

-use problem-centered focus

-draw on meaningful experiences
-focus on immediacy of application
-allow for self-direction and setting own pace
-organize material
-encourage role play

MIDDLE-AGED ADULTHOOD

Piaget: Formal Operations Stage

-abstract thought; reasoning is both inductive and deductive

Erikson: Generativity vs Self-absorption and Stagnation

-reflecting on accomplishments and determining if life changes are needed

Salient Characteristics

-Cognitive:

Example: ability to learn remains steady throughout this stage

-Psychosocial

Example: facing issues with grown children, changes in own health and increased responsibility
for own parents

Teaching Strategies

-maintain independence and reestablish normal life patterns

-assess positive and negative past learning experiences
-assess potential sources of stress
-provide information relative to life concerns and problems
 Western Mindanao State University

COLLEGE OF NURSING

Zamboanga City

NCM 102 – HEALTH EDUCATION

OLDER ADULTHOOD

Piaget: Formal Operations Stage

-abstract thought; reasoning is both inductive and deductive

Erikson: Ego Integrity vs Despair

-coping with reality of aging; mortality, and reconciliation with past failures

Geragogy: the teaching of older persons, accommodating the normal physical, cognitive and
psychosocial changes

Salient Characteristics

-Cognitive:

Fluid Intelligence- capacity to perceive relationships, to reason, and to perform abstract

thinking, which declines with aging

Crystallized Intelligence- the intelligence absorbed over a lifetime, which increases with
experience

-Psychosocial:

Example: adjusting to changes in lifestyle and social status

Teaching Strategies

-use concrete examples

-build on past experiences
-focus on one concept at a time
-use a slow pace
-use repetition and reinforcement
-provide brief explanations
-use analogies
-speak slowly and clearly
-use low-pitched tones
-minimize distractions
-rely on visual aids and supplement with verbal instructions
-use large letters and well-spaced print
-provide a safe environment
-give time to reminisce
 Western Mindanao State University

COLLEGE OF NURSING

Zamboanga City

NCM 102 – HEALTH EDUCATION

ROLE OF FAMILY IN PATIENT EDUCATION

-Family is the most important variable influencing patient outcomes

-The nurse educator and family should be allies
-It is important to choose the most appropriate caregiver to receive information

SUMMARY

-Readiness to learn in children is very subject-centered, and motivation to learn in adults is

very problem-centered.

-Rate of learning and capacity for learning, as well as situational and emotional barriers to
learning, vary according to stages of development

-Knowledge of tasks associated with each developmental stage will help individualize the
approach to education in meeting the needs and desires of learners and their families

-Nurses, as the main source of health education, must determine what needs to be taught, when
to teach, how to teach, and who the focus of teaching should be in light of the developmental
stage of the learner

PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

• Learning takes place as individuals interact with their environment and incorporate new
information or experiences with what they already know or have learned
• Factors in the environment that affect learning include:
-society and culture
- the structure or pattern of stimuli
- effectiveness of role models and reinforcements
- feedback for correct and incorrect responses,
-and opportunities to process and apply learning to new situations.
• Learners often have a preferred mode for taking in information (visual, motor, auditory,
or symbolic) and, while some individuals may learn best on their own, others will benefit
from expert guidance, social interaction, and cooperative learning.
 Western Mindanao State University

COLLEGE OF NURSING

Zamboanga City

NCM 102 – HEALTH EDUCATION

• A critical influence on whether learning occurs is motivation. The learning theories

suggest that to learn, the individual must want to gain something (receive rewards and
pleasure, meet goals and needs, confirm expectations, grow in positive ways, resolve
conflicts), which in turn arouses the learner by creating tension (drives to be reduced,
disequilibrium and imbalance) and the propensity to act or change behavior.
• The relative success or failure of the learner’s performance may affect subsequent
learning experiences.
• In some cases, an inappropriate, maladaptive, or harmful previously learned behavior
may need to be extinguished and then replaced with a more positive response. It is, of
course, easier to instill new learning than to correct faulty learning.
• The educator’s selection of learning theories and structuring of the learning experience
become important in this realm.
• To be effective, educators must have knowledge (of the material to be learned, the
learner, the social context, and educational psychology), and they must be competent (be
imaginative, flexible, and able to employ teaching methods; display solid communication
skills; and have the ability to motivate others).
• There is the need to recognize and relate the new information to the learner’s past
experiences (old habits, culture, familiar patterns, childhood memories, feelings about
the self, and what is valued, normative, and perceived as successful or rewarded in
society). Ignoring these considerations, of course, may hinder learning.
• Other impediments to learning may involve a lack of clarity and meaningfulness in what
is to be learned, neglect or harsh punishment, fear, negative or ineffective role models,
and rewards for unhealthy behavior, confusing reinforcement, and inappropriate
materials for the individual’s ability, readiness to learn, or stage of life-cycle
development.
• Individuals are unlikely to want to learn who have had detrimental socialization
experiences, are deprived of stimulating environments, and are without goals and
realistic expectations for themselves.

REFERENCES:

Susan B. Bastable, 2nd Edition Nurse as Educator, Principles of Teaching and Learning for
Nursing Practice 2008 Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc (www.jbpub.com)

https://slideplayer.com/slide/7749617/

https://slideplayer.com/slide/9758589/

https://slideplayer.com/slide/8666298/
 Western Mindanao State University

COLLEGE OF NURSING

Zamboanga City

NCM 102 – HEALTH EDUCATION

Prepared by:

Ariene Ventura Erie, RN, MAN

Health Education Instructor