Learning is Education that Transforms:
Education changes behaviour, but what ‘kind’ of education does this?
Whilst we will examine key aspects of the Harms done by New/Novel Psychoactive Substances, what we don’t want to do is waste your time simply inventorying descriptive data about types and variants and impact, that may or may not give you some facts about this subject matter that you don’t already know.
We will attempt in this presentation to open a more proactive focus on the reducing of demand and diverting from NPS use.
One key framework for a behaviour transitioning educative process.
- Aware – Information (Whilst a starting point of contemplation, giving ‘facts’ in a vacuum has little traction in behaviour change)
- Move – Education (This is where knowledge is added giving facts some context for application and a potential direction)
- Change – Learning (This is where knowledge is applied in a sustained direction with purpose, under tutelage for a specific outcome – This helps create new behaviours)
It is important to understand that teaching and learning mechanisms and modes have many elements and both the cognitive, (but more specifically) the affective domain education pedagogies are enhanced by both evidence-based practice, as well as, by practice based evidence.
This is no more evident than in indigenous cultural settings, and of growing importance in sub-cultural ‘tribal’ settings too.
Evidence-based Practice & Practice-based Evidence?:
Efficacious pedagogies in the Affective Domain education arena include imperatives such as the contextualised sharing of relevant earned resiliency and lived experience with the learning audience. This is one a few vital components of an education strategy, that seeks to develop proactive and protective behaviours in the child and emerging adult. Lived experience alone (i.e. substance user) is only valuable in a protective context when it is paired with the earned resiliency that empowered them to exit and stand from substance use and its harms, that proves valuable in the behaviour change education process.
“One with lived experience is seen by the client/student as an authentic knowledge holder.”
Gemma Khodr – Indigenous Health & Alcohol CRE Forum September 2020
Contributing to the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats (office.com)