Planning and implementation of a training program applicable to diverse societies - lessons learned from the JICA group training: ‘Continuum of Care for Quality Improvement of Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health in Francophone Africa’
- VernacularTitle:Planning and implementation of a training program applicable to diverse societies - lessons learned from the JICA group training: ‘Continuum of Care for Quality Improvement of Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health in Francophone Africa’
- Author:
Azusa IWAMOTO
1
;
Yoichi HORIKOSHI
2
Author Information
- Keywords: Continuum of Care; laboratory method for experimental learning; matrix
- From:Journal of International Health 2017;32(4):249-259
- CountryJapan
- Language:Japanese
- Abstract: Introduction Since the year 2003, National Center for Global health and Medicine (NCGM) has been implementing a JICA group training: ‘Continuum of Care for Quality Improvement of Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health in Francophone Africa’. During these ten years, we have recognized the difficulty for trainees to adopt their new knowledge and skills, into their own work because of social and cultural differences. To overcome this issue, we had introduced an approach: ‘laboratory method’ for experiential learning. In this method, participants work together in a group to learn through experiences-based analysis. However, we have faced the gap between the ‘laboratory method’ and the whole contents of course. Trainees could not utilize ‘laboratory method’ as a useful tool to learn practical skills in the training. To solve this problem, in the year 2013, we added several new learning styles to make the ‘laboratory method’ more usable throughout the training period.Method and Results We utilized the ‘inception reports’, which all trainees had submitted to JICA before they came to Japan, as an important tool for the ‘laboratory method’. Trainees extracted their common theme from all reports in their group work. Moreover, they used one common ‘matrix’ to analyze their common agenda. Trainees recorded their learning on the ‘matrix’ and revised them if necessary after discussions in regular review meetings. This work helped trainees understand how to put the ‘laboratory method’ into their practice. They also recognized their colleagues and themselves as important ‘resources’ for learning by sharing their own experiences.Conclusion Participants in the group-training course could utilize the ‘laboratory method’ for their learning throughout the course by using a ‘matrix’ as a tool for analysis. The awareness that their colleagues and themselves could be valuable ‘resources’ could be a breakthrough for working after they went back to their countries.
