Learning Process of Individual and Role of Nursing Educator
Individual Learning Characters of Development
As noted earlier, current chronological age is only a relative indicator of someone's physical. cognitive, and psycho social stage of development. Unique as every individual is in the world, however, some typical developmental trends have been identified as milestones of normal progression through the life cycle. When dealing with the teaching-learning process, it is imperative to examine the developmental phases as individuals progress from infancy to senescence to fully appreciate the behavioral changes that occur in the cognitive, effective, and psycho motor domains.
Age and Relations to Learning
As influential as age can be to learning readiness, it should never be examined in isolation. Growth and development interact with experiential background, physical and emotional health status, and personal motivation, as well as numerous environmental factors such as stress, the surrounding conditions, and the available support systems, to affect a person's ability and readiness to learn.
Phases of Learning
Musinski (1999) describes three phases of learning: dependence, independence, and interdependence. These passages of learning ability from childhood to adulthood, labeled by Covey (1990) as the “maturity continuum,” are identified as follows.
Dependence is characteristic of the infant and young child, who are totally dependent on others for direction, support, and nurturance from a physical, emotional, and intellectual standpoint (unfortunately, some adults are considered stuck in this stage if they demonstrate manipulative behavior, do do not listen, are insecure, or do not accept responsibility for their own actions).
Independence occurs when a child develops the ability to physically, intellectually, and emotionally care for himself or herself and make his or her own choices, including taking responsibility for learning
Interdependence occurs when an individual has sufficiently advanced in maturity to achieve self-reliance, a sense of self-esteem. and the ability to give and receive, and when that individual demonstrates a level of respect for others. Full physical maturity does not guarantee simultaneous emotional and intellectual maturity. If regarding the nurse as educator is to encourage learners to take responsibility for their own health, learners must be recognized as an important source of data their health status.
Before any learning can occur, the nurse must assess how much knowledge the learner already possesses with respect to the topic to be taught. With the child as client, for example, new content should be introduced at appropriate stages of development and should build on the child's previous knowledge base and experiences.
Process of Learning and Role of Educator
The major question underlying the planning for educational experiences is: When is the most appropriate or best time to teach the learner? The answer is when the learner is ready. The teachable moment, as defined by Havig hurst (1976), is that point in time when the learner is most receptive to a teaching situation. It is important to realize that the teachable moment needs not to be a spontaneous and unpredictable event.
That is, the nurse as educator does not always have to wait for teachable moments to occur: the teacher can actively create these opportunities by taking an interest in and attending to the needs of the learner, as well as using the present situation to heighten the learner's awareness of the need for health behavior changes (Hinkle, 2014; Lawson & Flocke, 2009).
When assessing readiness to learn, the nurse educator must determine not only whether an interpersonal relationship has been established, prerequisite knowledge and skills have been mastered, and the learner exhibits motivation, but also whether the plan for teaching matches the learner's developmental level (Crandell et al., 2012; Leifer & Hartston, 2013, Polan & Taylor, 2015; Santrock, 2017).
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