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Experiential Learning in the Undergraduate Nutrition Didactic Curriculum: Enhancing Student's Ability to Link Experience with Competencies Achieved
Author(s) -
Scannavino Martine Ida
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.675.15
Subject(s) - accreditation , curriculum , experiential learning , medical education , service learning , medicine , graduation (instrument) , core competency , psychology , pedagogy , engineering , mechanical engineering , marketing , business
Objective To demonstrate an experiential learning model in undergraduate didactic education in dietetics as an approach to enhance students’ recognition of achievement of the Accreditation Council on Nutrition and Dietetics Education's Foundation Knowledge and Competencies. Methods The Cedar Crest College Didactic Program in Dietetics (CCC DP) systematically integrates an experiential learning model throughout select components of the curriculum. The active learning experiences were developed to achieve competency of specific Accreditation Council on Nutrition and Dietetics Educations’ (ACEND) Foundation Knowledge and Competencies for Dietitians. The didactic curriculum competencies are categorized into four Domains, each Domain is then delineated into Core Knowledge Competences referred to as KRDs. One example of an activity is a “one‐on‐one” wellness counseling experience to participants in the College's Campus Wellness program allowing students to achieve competency for several KRD competencies. This experience allows students to demonstrate effective and professional oral and written communication and documentation (KRD 2.1); demonstrate counseling techniques to facilitate behavior change (KRD 2.2); and develop an educational session or program education strategy for a target population (KRD 3.3). In addition, experiential activities in food service management allows the students to complete facility safety audits at assigned food service facilities and create an in‐service to address safety deficiencies achieving KRD 4.2, quality management of food and nutrition services. Summary of Results Upon completion of the CCC DP curriculum students are required to complete the “Graduation Exit Survey”. This survey is used to gauge students’ perceptions of their level of competency for all ACEND KRD competencies throughout the CCC DP curriculum. Students report a higher level of perceived competency for KRDs that were augmented with an experiential learning component, and are able to identify the actual activity where the competency was practiced and achieved. Conclusion The integration of experiential learning within the CCC DP curriculum enhances both the achievement of select competencies by the student and the student's ability to identify and actualize theories, concepts and skills into practice.