Attitudes, Knowledge, and Skills: The Fundamental Building Blocks ...

Attitudes, Knowledge, and
Skills: The Fundamental
Building Blocks of Training
Prepared by Fabio Saini for:
Orientation Workshop on Training Methodologies
Taicang, China, 7-10 June 2010
UNFPA China Program, South-South Cooperation Initiatives
2009 2010
Organized in collaboration with the China Training Center of
Reproductive Health & Family Care (CTC)

Attitudes
�� Attitudes are the established ways of
responding to people and situations that
we have learned, based on the beliefs,
values and assumptions we hold. How we
respond to situations, and our behavior
can reflect our attitude

Knowledge
�� The definition of knowledge can vary depending
on the theory of knowledge creation that a
person chooses to follow. However, as one of
the aim of training is to improve performance
and quality, knowledge needs to be considered
both as the required information to perform a
task as well as the capacity to apply it back in
the work situation. situation
Adapted from:
http://www.google.co.th/search?q=exploring+attitudes+knowledge+skills+SRH++tr
http://www.google.co.th/search?q=exploring+attitudes+knowledge+skills+SRH++tr
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Skills
� Skills are defined as expertness, practiced ability, facility in
doing something, dexterity and tact. Skill encompasses
experience and practice, and the gaining of skill leads to
unconscious and automatic actions. Skill is more than just
the following of rule-based actions. The potential downside
of such an attribute is that, in the absence of knowledge
and attitudes, such a "skilled" person may have no ability or
capacity to react to situations outside the normal condition,
i.e. skills alone without knowledge and attitudes can be
dangerous.
Adapted from:
http://www.google.co.th/search?q=exploring+attitudes+knowledge+skills+SRH++training&rls=com.mi
http://www.google.co.th/search?q=exploring+attitudes+knowledge+skills+SRH++training&rls=com.mi
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Case study
� You have been asked to be part of a team to train health
providers working in family planning clinics to integrate HIV
prevention in their services. Most of the providers have
excellent medical background and good skills in clinical
procedures, but very limited experience in addressing
sexuality and communication issues with clients. In addition,
most of the providers are used to receiving lectures and
have not had opportunities to participate in learner-centered
and experiential training. You have also just found out that
most of the clients they see are married women.

Let’s discuss
1. What attitudes would be important to explore with
these providers during training, and why?
2. What new knowledge would you introduce in the
training, and why?
3. If you didn’t explore attitudes of providers about the
topics you plan to introduce, what could happen?
4. What skills would you aim to help them develop?
5. If your training didn’t help providers develop awareness
of their attitudes and the potential impact on service
provision, what could happen during the training? And
What could happen when the providers go back to work?