In-Hospital Hands-On Learning by Children With Cancer or Other Chronic Diseases

Abstract

Hands-on learning in everyday situations is important for the development of sociality and life skills. Elementary- and middle-school-age children with cancer or other chronic diseases need to have such learning experiences, because when they are hospitalized, their life experiences are limited. In order to clarify the current educational conditions in hospitals, teachers who had taught in hospitals answered questionnaires and were interviewed. The results revealed that some restrictions in hospitals imposed difficulties on the provision of as much hands-on experience for hospitalized children as is experienced by children who are not living in hospitals. However, the results also revealed that in-hospital education could provide hands-on experience if the content, procedure, and location of the learning activities were carefully planned in coordination with activities relating to the children's treatment, and utilizing facilities and human resources both in and outside the hospital. Further, it was suggested that hands-on learning would be possible for hospitalized children if their schools and the hospitals cooperated and shared information about the children's condition, as well as about matters needing attention and the content of the learning activities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)