Work diaries as a tool for examining in-service training needs: their use with HEOs

Abstract

IT IS now widely accepted that adult learners, particularly professionals, are problem oriented in their approach to and interested in the immediate application of their learning. Knowing what these problems and immediate applications are likely to be, however, is very much easier in some profession al groups than in others. Health education officers (HEOs), it is suggested, fall into the latter category. This paper describes the use of work diaries as a framework for identifying the in-service training needs of three regional groups of HEOs and considers some of the weaknesses of this approach. It con cludes that the process of feedback of the results of a diary analysis is as important as the diary data as a basis for planning training programmes.