Educating for Health module: Develop your skills and experience to communicate health education effe

Introduction, aims, and summary of content

On behalf of the team, welcome to the Educating for Health module. The purpose of this module study guide is to provide you with details of the module and information concerning the assessment. The aim of this module is to develop you as a graduate to have the language, knowledge, understanding, skills and experience to successfully use educational and communication skills in a variety of settings. During this module it is envisaged that you will be assisted in developing your potential in working effectively, planning educational outreach to diverse populations. This will be in part by reflecting upon transferrable skill-sets and participating in teaching for health, evaluating educational programme design in class and   local settings.

The content of the module builds on and deals with particular aspects of educating for health. Each session consists of a mixture of, lectures activities and on line work. The module has a comprehensive reference list to support your learning and a selection of relevant literature.

The module content will enable you to reflect on your personal experience of health education and examine theoretical underpinnings from psychology, philosophy and ethical standpoints.

• Understanding the nature of learning and communication, as applied across the lifespan.

• The range of theoretical approaches that enhance teaching, including but not limited to social learning theory and the Freirean perspective.

• Current evidence as applied to a range of teaching and learning methods and approaches to communication.

• Health education and promotion methods to facilitate small group teaching

• Coaching techniques to facilitate individual learning.

• Assessing your own and other’s learning preferences and styles.

• Appropriate means for communicating and collaborating effectively with others to improve population health and wellbeing.

• Exploring the role of the health educator as a facilitator to empower through one to-one teaching and communicating within a range of settings.

• Identify learning theories and communication strategies and their relevance to critical empowerment models of health promotion and public health.

• Effectively plan strategies that incorporate appropriate teaching methods when planning for learning about health in a variety of settings

• Understand and adapt to client levels of literacy, including information literacy, media literacy and health literacy

• Apply principles of teaching and learning to the promotion of health from both theoretical and practical perspectives.

• Select from a range of communication methods to match specific situations and meet the needs of clients, including communicating about risks to health, wellbeing and safety and advise on how to prevent or mitigate risks

• Examine evaluative strategies and apply these to the practice of health promotion and public health

• Self-assessment and reflection for developing a personal development plan

Discussions will be around the factors which affect learning, the power influences and motivational issues.

The focus will be applied to clients' needs to a range of teaching and learning methodologies. Finally the content will include evaluation, the purpose, approaches to and application of these to the health educationalists role

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

1. Understand the nature of learning and communication and the evidence supporting effective teaching methods for use across   the lifespan and in a variety of settings

2. Describe the use of, and apply, selected teaching methods and communication strategies to promote health to individuals, groups and populations.

3. Select and evaluate education approaches appropriately to meet the needs of different clients and populations.

Essay on, Conduct a search for public health evidence, discuss both the importance of evidence in public health and the search strategy that was used; and summarise (appraise) one relevant article identified through your search.