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Changing Behavior: The Role of Micro-Affirmations
In 1973, Dr. Mary Rowe, a faculty member at MIT, coined the terms “micro-inequities and
micro-affirmations” and defined them as such:
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• Micro-inequities: “apparently small events which are often ephemeral and hard-
to-prove, events which are covert, often unintentional, frequently unrecognized
by the perpetrator, which occur wherever people are perceived to be ‘different.’”
• Micro-affirmations: “apparently small acts, which are often ephemeral and hard-
to-see, events that are public and private, often unconscious but very effective,
which occur wherever people wish to help others to succeed.”
Dr. Rowe notes that many micro-inequities are unconscious biases and that if someone tries
to always affirm others in an appropriate and consistent way (eg, using micro-affirmations),
one has a good chance of preventing unconscious slights by blocking a behavior one wants
to prevent. According to Dr. Rowe, “micro-affirmations are tiny acts of opening doors to
opportunity, gestures of inclusion and caring, and graceful acts of listening. Micro-affirmations
lie in the practice of generosity” and “include the myriad details of fair, specific, timely,
consistent and clear feedback that help a person build on strength and correct weakness.”
Small things are especially important with respect to feelings and it is important to remember
that
attitudes may follow behavior just as behavior may follow attitudes
.
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Using Teaching Strategies that Reflect Differences in Learning Styles and
Principles of Adult Education
A core concept in learning theory is that individuals differ in how they learn. Learning style
is an individual’s natural or habitual pattern of acquiring and processing information in
learning situations. In addition, effective adult education is fundamentally different from
educating children. Adults are not just “old children,” and they justifiably resent being treated
like children. This applies to all facets of their treatment, including education about lifestyle
changes to cope with obesity and OA.
Learning Styles Inventory
Learning styles can be influenced by past experiences, education, work and the learning
situation. It is important to recognize that they are not fixed but may be adapted according to
context and what is being learned. Nevertheless most people still favor one style of learning.
The emergence of numerous learning style models over the past 25 years has brought
increasing attention to the idea that students learn in diverse ways and that one approach
to teaching does not work for every student or even most students.
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Many learning style
models have Learning Styles Inventories (usually questionnaires) to assess an individual’s
“category” of learning style. One of the most common and widely-used categorizations of
the various types of learning styles is Fleming’s VARK model (free VARK questionnaire is
available at
http://www.vark-learn.com) that categorizes individual learning preferences into
the following categories:
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•
V
isual learners: prefer charts, diagrams, brochures, pictures, etc.;
•
A
uditory learners: like to explain new ideas to others, discuss topics with educators,
use stories and jokes, attend lectures and discussion groups, etc.;