Page 269 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

learners when matched to the learning situation. An audiotape can be used to hear language or dialogue. A
videotape could illustrate an unfamiliar setting or piece of equipment. The newest vehicles for delivering
innovative training include podcasting, cell phones, computer-interactive videoconferencing, and other
electronic devices. Media is considered an adjunct to learning and should not be considered the total learning
experience.11,12 (Chapter 14 discusses media in more detail.)

CASE ANALYSIS 1

Develop a lesson plan for the prenatal nutrition class. Which teaching method(s) would you select for this
audience?

Techniques for Different Domains of Learning

For learning in the cognitive domain, most of the preceding techniques may be effective. There are additional
factors to consider in fostering learning in the affective and psychomotor domains. Because learners represent
different learning styles, there is an advantage to using mixed methods rather than only one method.1,13

In the affective domain, the educator seeks to influence the learner’s interests, attitudes, beliefs, and values.
This requires ongoing contacts rather than a single session. At the lowest level in the affective domain,
receiving and awareness, audiovisual materials or guided discussion can begin to present the relationship
between food choices and obesity. At higher levels, where the adoption of new attitudes and values is
important, the individual must participate more fully in discussion of food choice options. Commitments that
are made public are more likely to be adopted than those that are kept private, and attitudes are acquired
through interpersonal influences.14

Using multiple instructional strategies that influence deeper level learning of nutrition and the modification
of attitudes is more likely to promote behavior change. Promoting the active involvement of participants and
interpersonal interaction in a group can help. Different types and dimensions of these techniques can address
the variety of learning styles more effectively than a single teaching method.

The problem-solving process in which the instructor presents a puzzling situation or problem is an example
of multiple-step learning. The learner or learner group may be asked to calculate the daily fat or sodium
allowance from food labels. The steps require the learner to identify and clarify the problem, form hypotheses,
gather data, analyze and interpret data, select possible solutions, test solutions, and finally draw conclusions
and select the best solution to the problem. People learn how to solve problems, evaluate possible solutions,
and think critically. Clients can be guided through this process so that they learn to solve their own nutrition
problems.3,10,14

Modeling is also a method of influencing a person’s behavior. People learn by observing others and then
imitating them in unfamiliar or new situations. The teacher should behave as the learner is expected to
behave, modeling the desirable attitude or behavior. People are more likely to accept new behaviors, such as
healthful food choices or routine hand washing, when they meet and have discussions with people who have
successfully adopted them.15

Skills in the psychomotor domain are learned with direct experience and practice over time. The instructor

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