CHAPTER TWO METHODOLGY
3.5 Teaching Methods For HIV/AIDS Education
Traditionally, Educational Institutions have been in the business of transmitting knowledge. The most common practice is one of scientific experts presenting discipline specific knowledge, to be internalized by individual students and transferred at some point in the future to whatever new situations they face.
(VonKotze and Cooper, 2000, p216) Educators and educational institutions are under pressure to design curricula that will serve national priorities to become more economically effective, efficient, competitive and flexible, and which favour
instrumentalism and vocationalism over critical faculties. (Smyth 1996, cited in VonKotze and Cooper, 2000, p2l2) But university institutions can attempt to develop curricula that work towards greater inclusivity, combining the short-term goals of self-improvement with the longer-term goal of changing the social order. In such curricula, University Adult Education should not simply service the national
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plan, it should foster in students critical questions, a desire to seek alternatives, and a sense of civic responsibility.
One method of education which is breaking with this tradition is that of 'Project Based Learning' (PBL), PBL offers a break with the cognitive learning model because the primary site of learning moves beyond the academy to organizations within civil society.Ithas been argued that 'Project Based Learning' has the potential of allowing students to construct new knowledge which is action oriented and socially relevant. (VonKotze and Cooper, 2000)
Itis obvious that HIV/AIDS education must follow this route ifit is to be successful.
Kelly, talks about 'Methodology, channels and communicators' and states that it is crucial that programmes on HIV/AIDS are interactive and participative, there is no room for passive learning. He believes that comprehensive programmes should include a number of the following:
• Formal classroom teaching-learning activities of an interactive nature
• Programmes for learners and educators provided by outside agencies
• Extra curricula activities and programmes
• Purpose designed programmes within communities
• Broader community education activities
• Intensive short workshop like activities
• Programmes organized by other organisations i.e. sports, youth, church and social service.
They should also take into account the important contributions that peer influence and people living with the disease can make to such programmes. (Kelly, 2002, p9) In a review in 'Impilo' a Primary Health Care Magazine, it Inentions that the frightening spread of HIV/AIDS has blown apart any assumption that it is enough simply to provide factual health information. Surveys particularly mnong young people brought the message home that just because a person is informed of the importance of using a condom does not mean they will use one. Efforts need to be made to find ways to engage more deeply with the views beliefs and feelings of young people. (Impilo, 2001)
A method that has been used successfully in HIV/AIDS education is 'Elnpowerment Theory'. Empowerment theory enhances collective action, provides opportunities to develop knowledge and skills, creates needed resources and shared control among teachers and learners. In Zimmerman' s paper on an empowerment approach for prevention it states that a sense of control, skill development and supportive social networks are associated with health behaviour. (Zimlnerman m et aI, 1997)
Service learning is another approach that has been used in HIV/AIDS progrmrunes.
Service learning programs aim to equally benefit the provider and the recipient of the service as well as ensuring that it focuses on both the service being provided and
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the learning that is occurring. Itis this balance that distinguishes service learning from other experiential education programmes. (Furco, 1996)
In the document by Chetty (2002), there is also debate between proponents of formal and non-formal approaches to dealing with HIVIAIDS in the curriculum.
Chetty states that though there is widespread agreement that university curricula should in some way reflect the impact of HIVIAIDS on our upderstandings of, and appro·ach to, all disciplines, the mechanics of changing what is taught and how it is taught are far less straightforward. The range of options includes the following:
• provide education on HIVIAIDS through non-formal means as part of a prevention strategy (workshops, peer education programmes, extra curricular activities). If formalised, the skills gained in these activities could lead to a career path.
• infuse issues of HIVIAIDS across the curriculum as both prevention strategy and as an academic requirement
• devise core compulsory courses across all disciplines (prevention and academic requirement)
• implement compulsory courses which include HIVIAIDS issues within a life skills curriculum.
(Chetty, 2002, p25)
Chetty (2002, p27&28) outlines four of the various options that are now being tried in a nUlnber of institutions, these are:
• An Integrated Model. This places the onus on every faculty to ensure that students and teachers are AIDS literate and that HIVIAIDS is integrated into their degree structures. Itis based on the proposition that HIV/AIDS must be made relevant to the life and career prospects of every student and that every university educator must take cognisance of the ways in which
HIVIAIDS affect their discipline. Skills related to preventing and managing HIVIAIDS are developed in relation to career paths and marketability
(Crewe,2001). Engineering students, for example, have developed working models of home-based care kits, and human resource management students are ready to handle the reality of preventing and managing HIV/AIDS in the workplace immediately. These students represent the university as an institution producing socially responsible, flexible and professional graduates with skills that can be deployed immediately in the work environment. In the final analysis, this is approach at the University of Pretoria that depends heavily on executive leadership from the vice chancellor, AIDS specialists and executive deans.
• Compulsory Model. The Sex and Risk Programme at the University of Durban-Westville involves a foundation level course for all incoming students in which HIVIAIDS is part of a credit bearing life skills and risk reduction programme (UDW, 2001). The approach challenges both
educators and students to work with a range of issues, which are much wider
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than the biomedical aspects of the epidemic, and is targeted at providing students with knowledge about HIV/AIDS, increased awareness of risk and skills to make better choices in their social and sexual relationships. The requirement that students treat the subject as a conventional academic topic involving research, assignments and tests, has yielded very important feedback to the university on their levels of knowledge, their attitudes and skills to deal with HIV/AIDS. It also provides a conduit through which students can approach the network of services' (such as counselling, testing and care) that are otherwise treated with some skepticism. In Kenya, Kenyatta University has also adopted the approach of requiring all undergraduates to complete compulsory courses on HIVIAIDS as well as offering certificate, diploma post graduate training in HIV/AIDS to teachers (Owino, P, 2001).
• Non-Formal Model. This involves recruitment and training a yearly cohort of students in various roles to work with their peers. Recruitment is through special interest activist groups; HIVIAIDS support groups or groups with a community outreach orientation. The programmes are typically voluntary, unpaid and target more senior students to work with new incoming students.
Peer education and peer counselling approaches to HIVIAIDS have been especially successful in these initiatives and exemplify the strength of non- formal interventions. Peer education has numerous advantages. It has been used in institutional settings for many years to tackle substance abuse and other risky behaviours and can therefore be easily adapted to focus on HIV/AIDS. Experience proves that students learn more readily from their peers. Peer education strategies are low cost, flexible and can reach
substantial numbers with little infrastructure. India's Universities Talk AIDS programme (UTA), initiated by government, is heavily reliant on peer education (Bhatt et aI, 1997). A number of examples are to be found in African institutions, including the use of peer educators in a structured community engagement model. For example,In But Free, the prisons outreach programme of the Copperbelt University in Zambia uses peer educators and counsellors (Simooya, 2001). Non-formal peer education programmes can also run alongside a formal model. In some examples moves are being made to set formalised standards of practice and credentials which might define a career path based on the skills students gain in non- formal programmes (SAUVCA, 2001).
• Specialised Courses - There are two possible options: the first is that
programmes can be offered within any faculty or discipline as a qualification -bearing programme with a specific focus on HIV/AIDS. The programme may include content from a range of disciplines. The second is that elective or compulsory modules are built into degree structures as a discrete
requirement with a specific focus on HIV/AIDS.
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The report also mentions 'Distance Education' and asks what opportunities does Distance Education offer in a HIVIAIDS strategy? New distance education
technologies and pedagogies now enable universities to reach a massively expanded number and range of students. Existing distance education infrastructure using print materials or electronic media can be adapted so that the same technology and the pedagogical power of distance education can also be harnessed against HIVIAIDS:
to provide information and education