Considerations in health education include learning abilities, learning styles, teaching strategies and techniques, and instructional materials. Since the instructional objectives and the learning styles of the students have been identified, the next step is to determine what instructional materials to use in order to catch the attention and motivate the students to learn and draw desirable learning outcomes from them. The learning styles of the students include visual, auditory, and kinesthetic styles. With this in mind, the health educator should employ methods and design materials that will suit the learning styles of the student.
A health assessment is an evaluation form about an individual’s medical background. The process of identifying abnormal findings from the health assessment is highly important to detect potential risks or actual illnesses and diseases for prompt medical attention. Performing health assessment and identifying abnormal findings are competencies that health practitioners should develop, thus the need for health education addressing these issues. (eHealthAssessment.com, 2008) To present the importance of health assessment and the process of how to identify abnormal findings, an instructional video should be presented to the students. The instructional video must relate dialogues from medical and health practitioners revealing the importance of health assessment, an actual footage of health assessment, etc. This technique will satisfy the visual and auditory learning styles of the students. Other methods will including presenting a slide of a health assessment form, forms with abnormal findings highlighted, etc. (San Jose State University, 2004)
Moreover, to satisfy the kinesthetic learning styles of the students, a simulation could be conducted after the introduction and discussion of health assessments and identifying abnormal findings. First, the health educator will demonstrate how a health assessment is conducted, and provide extensive information about abnormal findings etc. After this, the students will be paired with each other and a simulation of how health assessments are conducted will be done. Kinesthetic styles mean that students are inclined to be actively involved in the learning process. Therefore, to enhance the learning experience, health educators must provide activities that will allow the students to participate both mentally and physically. Other options could be observing professionals during health assessment and let the professionals reveal abnormal findings, or let the students join in with community work and ask them to assist in conducting health assessments. (San Jose State University, 2004)
References
eHealthAssessment.com. (2008). “Frequently Asked Questions.” Retrieved August 28, 2008,
from eHealthAssessment.com. Website: http://ehealthassessment.com/faq.html#what_is_it
San Jose State University. (2004). “Dale’s Cone of Experience.” Retrieved August 28, 2008,
from SJSU. Website: http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/it/itcdpdf/dale.pdf