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Additional information
Supplementary course content
This section provides additional activities and information that is supplementary to the main course content.
Examples of Socratic questions
Clarification questions
Question | When to use |
What do we already know about this? What does this mean? How does this relate to what we have been talking about? Are you saying … or …? Can you say that another way please? What do you think is the main issue? Can you give us an example? Can you tell us a bit more about that? | In the introduction to a session to find out what participants already know. At points during the session when you may be unclear if a participant has understood your explanation. To focus an individual on one part of their BG diary in the individual dose adjustment sessions. |
Probing assumptions
Question | When to use |
What would happen if …? What else might we think? What else could be having an effect? You seem to be thinking …? How did you reach that conclusion? How can you prove/disprove that? What is another way to look at it? What does the group think? | When previous experiences are clouding the issue (such as, which CPs to count, how many units to take for a correction dose, which insulin to change QA vs. BI). When there is resistance based on previous experience, for example, ‘If I do X, then Y always happens’. |
Probing reasons and evidence
Question | When to use |
Why is that happening? Can you give me an example of that? What do you think causes …? What could you do to check that? What other information do we need? Is there reason to doubt that? What does the group think? | In individual dose adjustment sessions when trying to establish the reasons behind BG results. When confirming the evidence behind a statement. |
Questioning viewpoints and perspectives
Question | When to use |
Another way of looking at this is … does this seem reasonable? What alternative ways of looking at this are there? What is the difference between … and …? Have you always felt this way? Has your viewpoint been influenced by something or someone? What caused you to feel that way? How are … and …’s ideas alike? Different? What might someone who believed … think? What does the group think? | When the next step may not be clear, for example, does the BG pattern indicate a QA or BI change? Attitudes to hypos and hypo treatments. Management of exercise, eating out, alcohol, illness. |
Probing implications and consequences
Question | When to use |
Then what would happen? What are the consequences of …? How could… be used to …? How does … affect…? How does … fit with what we learned before? Why is … important? If that happened, what else would happen as a result? Why? Could that really happen or probably happen? What does the group think? | Working through the stepwise approach, highlighting when insulin adjustments are appropriate or when it may be advisable to wait for more information. Use of appropriate hypo treatments (for example, consequences of over-treating a hypo). Use of appropriate correction doses (for example, when a participant has a history of using large doses of QA to correct BG). |
Questioning the question
Question | When to use |
Why do you think I asked that question? Am I making sense? Why not? What else might I ask? What does that mean? How does … apply to everyday life? How does that link to your action plan / goal? What does the group think? | Summing up Checking comprehension at the end of a session or a discussion. |
You can download a PDF version of the tables above.
Goal setting and action planning
Participant goals are individual to each person and based on their experience of living with type 1 diabetes. It is important to understand each participant’s goal, so that you can highlight how DAFNE sessions, and the DAFNE approach overall, are relevant to their goal. Participants are more likely to engage with a topic if they can see how it relates to their own life experience. This is why it is important to ask participants what their experience is, so that you can highlight sessions that are relevant and find ways to encourage participants to achieve their goals.
The DAFNE approach to goal setting is based on the cycle of change. The cycle can be useful to educators to estimate where in the cycle individual group participants might be. It may be useful to participants to highlight that lapse is part of the cycle and is to be expected.
Setting SMART goals
Effective goal setting can depend on goals being ‘SMART’:
- Specific (exactly what are you going to do?)
- Measurable (how will you know when you have achieved it; e.g. Glucose results?)
- Achievable (something you can do)
- Relevant (something that is going to get you what you want or is linked to your goal)
- Time (a start time, a finish time, frequency, when)
Encourage participants to examine their individual goals to make sure they are SMART.
Barriers to achieving goals
Goals are not always easy to achieve. Barriers may be:
- life events
- slow progress – the goal has not been fully defined or may not be ‘SMART’
- not enough support
- maintaining enthusiasm
- hassle factors, such as routines at work and at home
- not taking time out to review patterns in the Glucose diary.
Encourage participants to explore barriers to change. Use probing questions, and questions on viewpoints and perspectives, to explore barriers. Involve the group in problem solving how to overcome barriers.
Action planning
All participants should be encouraged to think about their long-term diabetes-related goals and how the DAFNE course might help them to achieve their goals. Action planning is an important part of goal setting. To help you with this, try the activity below and consider how it could be used to help your DAFNE course participants in their own goal setting and action planning.
Activity: Goals
How confident do you feel? Put an ‘x’ into the most appropriate box below.
| Not confident | Very confident | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
Comment
Practising setting your own goals and action plans can help you to facilitate goal setting and action planning throughout the DAFNE course.