Introduction
The plan was developed to raise awareness of type 2 diabetes within the local community. The emphasis of the teaching program was on the health risks associated with the disease and the prevention strategies for decreasing the likelihood of developing the condition, with a brief overview of the treatment and coping with the disease in the later stages. The educational program consisted of four hour-long events conducted in the community health center. The structure of the plan was based on the social learning theory, which maximized the participants’ familiarity with the identified practices and empowered them to take action whenever appropriate (Stockdale, n.d.). As the program was oriented towards a younger audience, the main focus of the plan was on behavior modifications and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle. The prominent emphasis of the plan was on the verbal persuasion (e.g. the self-identification of the issues pertinent to participants’ lifestyle with the help and guidance of the lecturer accompanied by the location of barriers and difficulties preventing the successful modification of healthy behavior) and the vicarious experience (e.g. the development of solutions such as dietary plans in groups followed by review and modification of each plan by the peers) (Stockdale, n.d.). On several occasions, the lectures incorporated the common misconceptions about the disease to maintain the attention of the audience and emphasize the insufficient level of public understanding of the issue.
Epidemiological Rationale for the Topic
According to the latest statistical analysis, more than one million people in the U.S. currently have diabetes (CDC, 2015). The situation is further aggravated by the fact that on many occasions the condition remains undiagnosed, with some estimates suggesting the number of 27% (CDC, 2015). In comparison to the overall picture, the current situation in the local community is relatively favorable, with the incidence well below the national average (Healthy Arizona, 2017). Nevertheless, the recent insignificant upward trend signals the vulnerability of community health. The most important aspect of the condition is its preventable nature. According to the consensus, the success of the disease prevention is determined largely by the predominant lifestyle at the young age, which suggests the necessity of developing an educational program oriented towards youth and promoting a healthy lifestyle, including dietary choices and regular exercise to minimize the health risks.
Evaluation of Teaching Experience
The educational program garnered satisfactory attention from the community. The attendance of the event, ensured by the promotional effort and pamphlet distribution, was sufficient for achieving the set objectives and slightly surpassed the minimal expected number of a participant in each case. It should be noted that in neither of cases the full capacity of the event was reached, leaving room for improvement. The majority of the participants were engaged throughout each session and displayed significant interest during the interactive elements of the program. However, only a fraction of the audience was actively engaging in discussion with both the lecturer and the peers. This suggests the lack of interest facilitated by those initially reluctant to participate. Simply put, the plan was more effective for those participants who were already predisposed towards taking an active role in the community. Some of the activities sparked more attention than others, with the development of a dietary plan being the most prominent example. Overall, all activities produced the expected effect and emotional response. The time frame and organizational issues did not exceed the estimated averages.
At the time of the current evaluation, only the preliminary assessment was completed based on the responses of the audience during the learning activities. These results were generally favorable and in each instance exceeded the minimum requirement for a successful result. For one of the exercises, the results also surpassed the optimistic predictions for each group. This result, however, is most likely due to the misjudgment of the difficulty of the questions rather than the exceptional success of the program. While it is impossible to conclusively describe the teaching experience as positive based on these results, they indicate the high level of involvement and the appropriateness of the chosen teaching methods. The surveys that are to be administered in 2 and 6 months will allow formulating a conclusion on the feasibility of the approach for producing long-term effects.
Community Response to Teaching
Based on the results described above, it is possible to conclude that the community response to the program was generally favorable. The readiness to participate, the number of returning participants, and involvement in program activities met the minimal requirements in each case. During the subsequent stages, some participants displayed signs of independent inquiry, providing knowledge that was not obtained during previous sessions and likely unavailable to participants before the program. From the organizational perspective, the event was assisted by the local authorities, which identifies alignment with community needs and suggests the possibility of continuing work in this direction once sustainable results are observed. It should be noted that all of the described responses can be ascribed to short-term effects and are insufficient for making conclusions on the impact on the community. The reaction of participants is insignificant considering their proportion against the total number of stakeholders, and the response must be observed in the long term to consider the intervention successful. Therefore, it would be more appropriate to evaluate the response once the results of the scheduled surveys are obtained.
Areas of Strengths and Areas of Improvement
Considering the suggested short-term success of the education program, it is possible to identify several strengths. First, the learning theory and the prevailing methods used during the development of the assignment proved to be consistent with the set objectives and the identified audience. Next, the chosen topic and direction taken by the program have sparked the interest of the participants and were deemed relevant enough to go complete the program by most of them. Finally, the emphasis on the contrast between the perceived and the actual proficiency of the population generated enough interest to maintain the sufficient level of attention of the learners and contribute to the memorization of information. However, certain areas of the program demand further improvement. First, the evaluation criteria must be reviewed to obtain a better understanding of student performance. Second, ways of involving the less active participants must be incorporated into the program to ensure their subsequent proactive stance towards the issue. Most importantly, it is necessary to review and improve the promotional aspect of the program. Despite the minor setbacks, the initial results were encouraging and have the potential to improve community health in the long run. At the same time, the program could easily cover a bigger audience without a significant increase in resources. Therefore, the initial number of participants remains the most obvious bottleneck in the way to success. Thus, the possible barriers to community involvement should be studied and acknowledged before repeating the educational event.
References
CDC. (2015). 2014 national diabetes statistics report. Web.
Healthy Arizona. (2017). Adults with diabetes. Web.
Stockdale, D. (n.d.). Curriculum development. Web.