Health and Social Care Learning Theories and Practices

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Understanding the Learning Process
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1 (Fact sheet)...........................................................................................................................4
Q1. In the first part of your factsheet, use Bloom's Taxonomy of learning to explain how
different domains of learning apply to learning in health and social care. (AC1.1)........................5
Q2. In the second part of your factsheet, analyse how theories of learning relate to the
development of understanding and skills in health and social care. (AC1.3)..................................6
Task 2 (Case study).........................................................................................................................8
Q3. At what stage of Kolb’s Learning Cycle did Elma start her learning? What did she do in
respect of each of the subsequent stages of the cycle? Using the following questions explain
different ways in which learning can occur in health and social care workplaces. (AC 1.2).........8
Task 3 (Brochure)..........................................................................................................................11
Part 1..............................................................................................................................................13
Q4. Explain the concepts of learning styles (AC2.2)....................................................................13
Q5. Explain different factors that influence effective learning development (AC2.1)..................13
Part 2..............................................................................................................................................15
Q6. Use the VARK (Visual Auditory Read Kinaesthetic) system or Honey and Mumford test to
assess your own preferred learning style (AC2.3).........................................................................15
Q7. Analyse the various influences that affect your own learning in relation to the learning
theory (AC2.4)...............................................................................................................................15
Task 4 (Case scenario-workplace learning plan)...........................................................................17
Describe the factors that you need to consider in your workplace learning plan. (AC3.1)...........17
Present relevant teaching strategies to support the learning of others in your workplace (AC3.2)
.......................................................................................................................................................18
Suggest a strategy for delivering and assessing learning in health and social care workplace
(AC3.3)..........................................................................................................................................19
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Explain the barriers to learning by your staff and the service users in the care home that maybe
experienced at work (AC4.1).........................................................................................................19
Describe the different methods you may use to identify the learning needs of your staff or service
users (AC4.2).................................................................................................................................20
After identifying the individual learning needs in the step 5, how would you support the
individual learning needs and evaluate the approaches you used to support. (AC4.3).................21
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................21
Reference List................................................................................................................................23
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Introduction
In health and social care settings, the professionals are responsible for delivering the best quality
of care practices to the care users. In order to do so, they are responsible for continuously
developing practice skills and acquiring knowledge in the specialty areas related to the health
and social care domain, for understanding and meeting the service users’ needs. Thus, it is
crucial for the healthcare professionals to understand and learn the way through which
individuals learn in the health and social care settings and the way their work could be supported
(Baldwin, 2016). In this regard, the professionals should also become familiar with the current
theories and concepts, so that they could relate these with the development of their professional
skills and knowledge acquisition specific to the health and social care settings.
The key purpose of the following assignment is to enable the learners to develop understanding
of different theories and styles of learning as well as to apply the understanding to devise and
implement learning strategies within a health and social care settings. The following assignment
will help to draw on own experience of the HSC professional to suggest ways for supporting
their learning. Finally, the assignment will also explore the ways of planning learning
opportunities for the service users’ involvement in the care procedure as well as the factors,
which are contributing in successful delivery of learning strategies and knowledge in the HSC
workplace, thereby promoting continuous professional development of health and social care
professionals.
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Learning in HSC
Q1. In the first part of your factsheet, use
Bloom's Taxonomy of learning to explain
how different domains of learning apply to
learning in health and social care. (AC1.1)
Bloom’s taxonomy is a set of three hierarchical models,
which are used for classifying the educational learning
objectives into different levels of complexity and specificity.
Cognitive domain: The cognitive domain is emphasizing
around the developing relationship or communication.
Professionals in the health and social care domain learn
through the cognitive domain through element, perceptive
and appliance level of coaching (Nkhoma et al., 2016).
Affective domain: The affective domain helps the learner to
build respect to behavioural viewpoints, while emphasizing
upon the attitudes and feelings of the learners, which are
resulting upon the learning process.
Psychomotor domain: This domain is emphasizing upon
building the professional’s ability to use their motor skills to
learn from the setting and surrounding in the health and
social care organization.
Q2. In the second part of your factsheet, analyse how
theories of learning relate to the development of
understanding and skills in health and social care.
(AC1.3)
In the health and social care sector, the professionals are also using the
theories related to learning for developing the understanding and skills
required to be successful health and social care worker.
Behaviourism theory – This theory helps the professionals in HSC
setting view knowledge as the repertoire of behavioural responses to
environmental stimuli.
Cognitive constructivism theory – This theory helps the learners in
HSC setting to visualize knowledge systems of cognitive structure, as
actively constructed ones by the learners, on the basis of their
fundamental cognitive structures.
Social constructivism theory – This theory indicates that knowledge is
constructed in the social context, through interaction with knowledge
community.
Holistic learning theory – This theory is helping the health and social
care professionals to understand their functions in a holistic ground.
Reinforcement theory – This theory indicates that behaviour is
significantly linked with psychology of a person.
Task 1 (Fact sheet)
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Q1. In the first part of your factsheet, use Bloom's Taxonomy of learning to explain how
different domains of learning apply to learning in health and social care. (AC1.1)
Bloom’s taxonomy is a set of three hierarchical models, which are used for classifying the
educational learning objectives into different levels of complexity and specificity. It can help
people to improve their learning through a systematic process of understanding and knowledge
development, which is also applicable for the HSC professionals. During 1940s, Bloom and
others developed this approach, by arranging the objectives and targets, which brought three
types or domains of learning and categorized the learning procedure accordingly (Armstrong,
2016). In each of these domains, learners utilize and develop different set of psychological
aspects, for accomplishing the expected outcomes in the learning circumstances. These domains
include cognitive, affective or emotional and psychomotor.
Figure: Bloom’s Taxonomy and learning domains
(Source: Adams, 2015)
In the health and social care sector, this taxonomy helps in creating appraisal by harmonizing
lessons learning goals at different levels. Through the systematic way, as highlighted in the
Bloom’s taxonomy, more complex learning is achieved and the learner reaches to the next level
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in the learning pyramid. In the health and social care domain also, the professionals develop
learning and understanding in these domains.
Cognitive domain: The cognitive domain is emphasizing around the developing relationship or
communication. Professionals in the health and social care domain learn through the cognitive
domain through element, perceptive and appliance level of coaching (Nkhoma et al., 2016).
Through learning in HSC, the individuals develop professional knowledge via comprehending
knowledge and applying those in the clinical practice for developing rapport with patients and
colleagues.
Affective domain: The affective domain helps the learner to build respect to behavioural
viewpoints, while emphasizing upon the attitudes and feelings of the learners, which are
resulting upon the learning process. Developing learning in this domain is crucial for the
professional for developing strong relationship with care user and other care providers (Illeris,
2018).
Psychomotor domain: This domain is emphasizing upon building the professional’s ability to
use their motor skills to learn from the setting and surrounding in the health and social care
organization. The professionals learn from their surrounding and professional learning about
skilled movement and other procedures to deal with different situations in the healthcare setting,
which is crucial, as the HSC staffs need to work during the emergency situations (Cuevas and
Dawson, 2018).
Q2. In the second part of your factsheet, analyse how theories of learning relate to the
development of understanding and skills in health and social care. (AC1.3)
In the health and social care sector, the professionals are also using the theories related to
learning for developing the understanding and skills required to be successful health and social
care worker. In the following section, the key theories related to learning have been
demonstrated below.
Behaviourism theory – This theory helps the professionals in HSC setting view knowledge as
the repertoire of behavioural responses to environmental stimuli. Such learning is promoted by
repetition and positive reinforcement (Nicolini et al., 2016). Professionals develop such learning
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as extrinsic one, which involves positive or negative reinforcement. Therefore, developing such
learning helps the HSC professionals to shape their behaviour, in favour to the needs of the care
users.
Cognitive constructivism theory – This theory helps the learners in HSC setting to visualize
knowledge systems of cognitive structure, as actively constructed ones by the learners, on the
basis of their fundamental cognitive structures. It promotes intrinsic motivation of the HSC
learners, as they are influenced to set their own goals and self-empowered to learn, for
understanding the assimilation or accommodation with others in the health and social care
environment.
Social constructivism theory – This theory indicates that knowledge is constructed in the social
context, through interaction with knowledge community. While working in the health and social
care settings, it is crucial for the professionals to work with others, in teams and in communities,
where the social interaction is necessary. This theory helps the learners in collaborative
assimilation and accommodation of new information. They are motivated both intrinsically and
extrinsically (Redmond, 2017). It is helping the learners to facilitate team work and engagement
in developing social relationship, which is crucial for the health and social care professionals.
Holistic learning theory – This theory is helping the health and social care professionals to
understand their functions in a holistic ground. It helps the professionals to develop effective
knowledge and understanding about the holistic needs of the patients and combine all the
behavioural and abstract aspects in the health and social care setting, to ensure that the desired
outcomes for the care user is met (Glasby, 2017).
Reinforcement theory – This theory indicates that behaviour is significantly linked with
psychology of a person. Therefore, stimulating behavioural aspects could significantly impact on
individual’s psychology, which is also true for the HSC professionals. Providing rewards can
reinforce psychology of HSC professionals and improve their commitment towards learning and
understanding their roles in the HSC settings.
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Task 2 (Case study)
Q3. At what stage of Kolb’s Learning Cycle did Elma start her learning? What did she do
in respect of each of the subsequent stages of the cycle? Using the following questions
explain different ways in which learning can occur in health and social care workplaces.
(AC 1.2)
In the case scenario, it has been revealed that Elma learned her patient Mr. Smith’s behaviour in
a systematic way and undertaken actions accordingly. In this regard, it is crucial to understand
the Kolb’s experimental learning theory first. “Kolb’s experimental learning theory (ELT)” is
referred to a learning theory, founded by Kolb in 1984, which is holistic learning cycle,
indicating the cyclical process through which individual learn particular aspects and gain
knowledge from their learning and understanding. The Kolb’s experimental learning cycle model
has identified four stages in the learning cycle, along with four different learning styles, based on
the learning patterns of the individuals (Smith, 2016). The first stage in the Kolb’s learning cycle
is “concrete learning”, where learner comes upon a new experience, which is followed by the
next stage, the “reflective observation”, which is the time to reflect on the experience of the
learner in a personal manner. The next step is abstract conceptualization, which is concluding or
learning from the experience. The learner at this stage, modifies the existing abstract ideas, based
on reflections from the previous stage. At the final stage, “active experimentation stage”, the
learner applies new ideas to his surrounding for understanding if there is any modification in the
next appearance of the experience and this becomes the concrete experience for the next cycle
(Dixon, 2017).
In case of Elma, it has been revealed that encountering the 90 years old deaf patient Mr. Smith,
she encountered a new experience. Once she failed to deal with the situation by her own way,
she shared the issue with other care assistant and gathered the information that Mr. Smith is able
to lip read. At this stage, she reflected her own observation, identifying that she was not facing
the patient’s face, for enabling him to lip read. Therefore, it can be interpreted that upon
reflecting own observation and experience at the second stage of Kolb’s experimental learning
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cycle, Elma started her learning from her new experience, which led her immediate action of
going back to Mr. Smith and experimenting her learning on Mr. Smith.
Figure: Kolb’s Experimental Learning Cycle
(Source: Schultz et al.,2016)
In the subsequent stages, Elma developed experimental learning, as demonstrated in the
systematic learning cycle by Kolb. For instance, after reflecting on her own observation from her
communication with Mr. Smith, he revealed that she had a knowledge gap about the information
that Mr. Smith can lip read and for lip reading, the speaker should be in a face-to-face position.
Thus, immediately, after reflecting on her experience, she immediately reaches to the next stage
in the experimental learning cycle. At this stage, she concluded her learning from the experience
through abstract conceptualization (Barker et al., 2016). Therefore, at this stage, Elma attempted
to conclude that she should go back to the patient Mr. Smith and does the same task again, i.e.
ask about his family again, so that she could understand whether her learning is effective or not.
After concluding her learning from the experience, she reached to the “active experimentation
stage” of the “Kolb’s learning cycle”. At this stage, she put her learning in her active experience.
She went back to Mr. Smith and faced him directly, by pulling a chair in front of him; sitting
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there, she could face Mr. Smith directly and enable him to read her lips, when she would ask
question. Upon her experiment, she revealed that her learning effectively helped her to talk with
Mr. Smith; she revealed that the patient is talkative. Even, she identified that he talks too much
and needs to be interrupted to give out tea. Therefore, from Elma’s experience, it is noteworthy
that her learning could be utilized and understood as the concrete experience for the next cycle,
when she would encounter a similar patient like Mr. Smith. Her learning would improve her
experience in the next cycle of learning.
Research – Research is an inevitable part in the health and social care sector, from where they
are continuously enriching their knowledge base. The HSC professionals are continuously
engaged in research activities, for ensuring that they are utilizing evidence-based procedures in
the care delivery, to ensure maximum quality of health outcomes of care users (Botelho et al.,
2016).
Observation – The HSC professionals are dealing with varied range of patients and care users
every day. They are observing and accomplishing their responsibilities towards each care users,
according to their needs, from where they are learning continuously.
Continuous professional development – In the health and social care sector, in several ways,
learning could occur. In this context, it is noteworthy that the health and social care professionals
are responsible for being engaged in the continuous professional development activities, which
ensures that their learning process is continuous and being improved continuously, thereby
improving their skills and ability to deliver the best care services every day. Several HSC
organizations involve CPD programs for skill improvement of professionals (Stein, 2018).
Work-based learning – In HSC setting, professionals can learn from a range of worm based
learning activities, from assessments, appraisal, training, development and other learning
programs.
Academic reading and writing – The HSC students and professionals are continuously engaged
in academic reading and writing, which also strengthen their learning and knowledge acquisition.
Simulation and clinical placement – These are crucial parts for the HSC students in their course
of developing knowledge and skills in the health and social care sector.
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Vocational qualification – A range of specialized professional skills and learning is achieved by
the HSC professionals through the vocational qualification, which are usually offered through
training and coaching methods (Horton and Pound, 2018).
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