Using SOLO Maps to analyse and address a health issue – diabetes in the Pacific.
Analysing a health issue – describing symptoms, who is affected, and then explaining its determinants (causes) and implications (effects) on well-being is a significant undertaking.
Note: Possible determinants of health include socioeconomic status, education level, geography, cultural identity, social inclusion and integration, community and infrastructure. When exploring the short, medium and long term implications of diabetes in the Pacific there is an especial focus on cultural values and practices that underpin Pacific peoples’ world views and perspectives on health.
Addressing a health issue. To extend this thinking by developing possible strategies to address the issue in ways that will lead to more equitable outcomes – either by addressing the determinants of health for the issue or by considering the impact on well-being – well by any reckoning the task has significant cognitive load. Especially when to do this “perceptively” students are told they must make connections to underlying health concepts (hauora, socio-ecological perspective, health promotion, and attitudes and values).
Many of us would be overwhelmed – swept away by the bricolage of new technical language alone.
This sequence of SOLO Maps was developed to help HAPE students at a local Auckland secondary school better understand the different stages of thinking required. The maps helped students overview and chunk the investigation into accessible sub-tasks and would allow a more equitable distribution of tasks in any collaborative group work.
