Educational Handbook for Health Personnel
How to use the Handbook
The presentation and layout of this Handbook are unusual.
It should be stressed at this point that
the approaches suggested in this book are the result of a deliberate choice by
the author and reflect his ideas in the field of education: they focus on
individual and community health needs, while at the same time placing students
in an active learning environment and making them the architects of their own
education. Various theories sometimes regarded as contradictory are explained to
the reader so as to give him food for reflection, rather than to subject him to
any philosophical constraint. It is for the reader to make his choice, to draw
initial conclusions and, in particular, to seek solutions for his own teaching
problems by taking what is worth using among the various theoretical approaches
suggested. To reject them wholesale would hardly be constructive; it would be
preferable to propose better ones.
For each chapter a list of objectives is
included to give you an idea of what you will get out of the chapter.
The theoretical input is presented in the form of original
documents or short quotations from texts listed in the bibliography.
All through the Handbook there are exercises to help you to
determine whether you have increased your skills (see check list).
Certain documents are printed in large type so that they can be
easily made into transparencies for use with an overhead projector (see
technique on page 3.46).
The page numbering is also unorthodox:
every chapter begins with a number ending in 01 (for example page 3.01 is the
first page of the third chapter), however many pages there may be in the
previous chapter. This makes it easier to find a specific passage in the
Handbook.
Rather than try to explain the whys and wherefores of this
unusual layout, which some find irritating and complicated at first, and others
as intriguing as a detective story, it seems simpler to invite you to use this
book just as it is. You will then draw your own conclusions as to the
“reasons” for its layout. There must be some... even if the author is
not aware of them all!
In any case you are warned not to read this Handbook like
a conventional book, starting with the first page and hoping to get to the last.
It is meant to be used as determined by the questions you put to
yourself, your needs, and the teaching problems that bother you - by your own
objectives, in short, whether or not they are already articulated.
This is why we are going to try and help you in this essential
but unusual and therefore difficult undertaking.
First situation: you are alone (on a
desert island) or else you are accustomed and prefer to work alone. You are
going to need grit, perseverance and 35 to 50 hours of free time.
Good Luck!
Second situation: a colleague also has
the Handbook and agrees to work with you. It will not be such an uphill task. If
you can get together a small working group of five persons, still better.
Third situation: you are taking part in
an educational workshop. The working methods for such a meeting are described in
this Handbook and group dynamics will do the rest.
In any case, the first thing to do is to identify your
needs.
You are invited to proceed in three
stages.
