Stages of the Learner In Nursing Education and Development
Developmental Stages of the Learner In Nursing Education
Then planning, designing, implementing, and evaluating an educational program, the nurse as educator must carefully consider the characteristics of learners with respect to their developmental stage in life. The more heterogeneous the target audience, the more complex the development of an educational program to meet the diverse needs of the population. Conversely, the more homogeneous the population of learners, the more straightforward the approach to teaching.
Developmental Stages and Leaner Abilities
An individual's developmental stage significantly influences the ability to learn. Pedagogy, andragogy, and geragogy are three different orientations to learning in childhood, young and middle adulthood, and older adulthood, respectively. To meet the health-related educational needs of learners, a developmental approach must be used. Three major stage-range factors associated with learner readiness physical, cognitive, and psychosocial maturation must be considered at each developmental period throughout the life cycle.
For many years, developmental psychologists have explored the various patterns of behavior characteristic of specific stages of development. Educators, more than ever before, recognize the effects of growth and development on an individual's willingness and ability to make use of instruction.Also, this chapter emphasizes the role of the nurse in assessment of stage specific learner needs, the role of the family in the teaching learning process, and the teaching strategies specific to meeting the needs of learners at various developmental stages of life.
A deliberate attempt has been made to minimize reference to age as the criterion for categorization of learners. Research on life span development shows that chronological age is not the only predictor of learning ability (Crandell, Crandell, & Vander Zanden, 2012; Santrock, 2017). At any given age, one finds a wide variation in the acquisition of abilities related to the three fundamental domains of development: physical (biological), cognitive, and psychosocial (emotional social) maturation.
Age ranges, such as those included after each developmental stage heading in this chapter, are intended to be used as merely approximate age strata reference points or general guidelines; they do not imply that chronological ages necessarily correspond perfectly to the various stages of development (Newman & Newman, 2015). Thus, the term developmental stage is the perspective used, based on the confirmation from research that human growth and development are sequential but not always specifically age related (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2015).
Age Related Normative In Nursing Education
Recently, it has become clear that development is contextual. Even though the passage of time has traditionally been synonymous with chronological age, social and behavioral psychologists have begun to consider the many other changes occurring over time that affect the dynamic relationship between a human's biological makeup and the environment. It is now understood that three important contextual influences act on and interact with the individual to produce development (Crandell et al, 2012; Santrock, 2017):
1.Normative age graded influences are strongly related to chronological age and are similar for individuals in a specific age group, such as the biological processes of puberty and menopause and the social cultural processes of transitioning to different levels of formal education or to retirement.
2.Normative history graded influences are common to people in a certain age cohort or generation because they have been uniquely exposed to similar historical circumstances. such as the Vietnam War, the age of computers, or the terrorist events of September 11, 2001.
3. 3.Normative life events are the unusual or unique circumstances, positive or negative, that are turning points in individuals' lives that cause them to change direction, such as a house fire, serious injury in an accident, winning the lottery, divorce, or an unexpected career opportunity.
Although this chapter focuses on the patient as the learner throughout the life span, nurses and nurse educators can apply the stage-specific characteristics of adulthood and the associated principles of adult learning presented herein to any audience of young, middle, or older adult learners.Whether the nurse is instructing the public in the community, preparing students in a nursing education program, or providing continuing education to staff nurses or colleagues.
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