6.3.2  Exercise

The principle of exercise states that those things that are most often repeated are the ones that are best remembered. Your audience will learn best and retain information longer when they have meaningful practice and repetition. It is clear that practice leads to improvement only when it is followed by positive feedback.

The human mind is forgetful and it can rarely retain, evaluate, and apply new concepts or practices after a single exposure. Audiences will not learn complex tasks in a single session. They learn by applying what they have been told and shown. Every time practice occurs, learning continues. The health educator must repeat important items of subject matter at reasonable intervals and provide opportunities for the audience to practice while making sure that this process is directed towards learning something new.