Page 239 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

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Summary

Effective education is based on theory. No single educational theory or model will facilitate learning and
behavior change in all individuals; rather, an opportunity exists to adapt these theories to individual
circumstances. This chapter focuses on several theories that seek to explain how people learn, including
behavioral, social cognitive, and cognitive theories. These theories and the other topics explored in this
chapter—andragogy, diffusion of innovations, technology as a learning aid, learning styles, teaching styles, and
transfer of learning to new situations—provide dietetics practitioners with a variety of approaches to use in
working with both clients and staff. A section on memory discusses how people remember new information.

Review and Discussion Questions

1. Compare and contrast the behavioral and cognitive theories of learning in terms of what is learned, the role of reinforcement, implications
for use, and most suitable audiences.

2. Differentiate between the four types of consequences and their effect on behaviors.
3. What effect does the timing of reinforcement have?
4. How can you encourage persistence in a client’s or employee’s behavior?
5. What is modeling?
6. Can you remember today anything you learned yesterday?
7. What makes information easy for you to learn and remember?
8. What strategies enhance long-term memory?
9. How do adults differ from children as learners?
10. What steps are involved in adopting innovations?
11. What is meant by learning styles and teaching styles?

Suggested Activities

1. Match these types of consequences with the examples A through C (below):
____________positive reinforcement
____________negative reinforcement
____________punishment
A. “With the diet you are on, you should know better than to eat fried chicken and French fries.”
B. “Employees who learn the new procedures this afternoon will not have to take any work home to study this evening.”
C. “Congratulations on your success. I’m proud of you.”

2. Extinction occurs as a result of which of the following?
A. Not rewarding a response.
B. Punishing a response.

3. According to cognitive learning theory, which of the following statements is true?
A. Learning involves associations that are arbitrary.
B. Learning involves specific information being organized into more generalized categories.
C. Learning involves observing and modeling after others.

4. Cognitive educators believe that
A. New information and knowledge should be presented in an organized fashion that considers prior knowledge.
B. New knowledge and information should be presented separately from prior knowledge.
C. It does not matter how new knowledge is presented as long as rewards are given.

5. Discuss in small groups each person’s examples of experiences with positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and

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