Unit rationale, description and aim

Dietetic practice with groups involves being a member of a team, participating in, and leading group discussions and processes, and developing, implementing, and evaluating group nutrition education and dietary counselling sessions, and food, nutrition and health promotion and intervention and prevention programs. Through examination of the theories of education and social marketing students will be supported to design nutrition education and dietary counselling programs, based on current food and nutrition science, to facilitate dietary change. Students will be provided opportunity to develop a deep understanding of group types, settings, and group processes, including with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Culturally and linguistically diverse and other diverse groups. They will be expected to be able to conduct an effective group nutrition education or dietary counselling session, reflecting on their own performance and providing peer review of other students' work. The aim of this unit is to assist students to develop the key skills to be able to conduct and participate in groups to build effective teams, and nutrition education and dietary counselling sessions and programs that promote food literacy, healthy eating, and positive dietary change.

2026 10

Campus offering

No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.

Prerequisites

NIL

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Apply understanding of group processes through con...

Learning Outcome 01

Apply understanding of group processes through conducting a focus, nominal, or other group process
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC3, GC4, GC6, GC7, GC9, GC10, GC11

Apply educational and marketing theory to the deve...

Learning Outcome 02

Apply educational and marketing theory to the development of nutrition education and dietary counselling programs
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC7, GC9, GC10, GC11

Develop a creative nutrition education or dietary ...

Learning Outcome 03

Develop a creative nutrition education or dietary counselling session to address a food literacy gap for a defined audience
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC3, GC4, GC6, GC7, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Demonstrate cultural competence required for diete...

Learning Outcome 04

Demonstrate cultural competence required for dietetic practice with diverse groups including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, culturally and linguistically diverse audiences, people with disabilities, older people, and young people
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC3, GC4, GC5, GC6, GC7, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Content

This unit includes topics related to the development and demonstration of professional dietetic practice and competence according to the Accreditation Standards of Dietitians Australia. These are described under the heading ‘Building professional dietetic practice’ in each unit outline and build on topics delivered synchronously and progressively throughout the degree. Students will have opportunities for collecting evidence of competence in the following areas.

Building professional dietetic practice

  • reflection and evaluation of practice
  • acknowledges, reflects and understands own values, beliefs, attitudes, biases and assumptions and their influence on practice
  • scope of practice and standards of care, codes of conduct
  • culturally safe and responsive practice (requiring emotional, spiritual, and cultural intelligence)
  • continuing professional development
  • attributes (empathy, flexibility, adaptability, resilience, ethical, respectful, demonstrates integrity, honesty, fairness, critical thinker)
  • understanding and advocating for the role of the dietitian in working with diverse groups
  • collaboration and communication skills with stakeholders


Group types and settings in dietetic practice

  • research
  • clients from diverse backgrounds including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and Culturally and linguistically diverse
  • health professionals (single and interdisciplinary)
  • healthcare teams
  • small groups, large groups
  • groups from different age ranges


Group processes

  • consultation processes e.g. focus groups
  • decision-making processes e.g. nominal group/consensus processes


Working with groups

  • facilitate effective groups in different settings (rapport, trust, cohesion, participation, negotiation, conflict resolution)
  • consumer engagement and participation in group processes
  • active learning principles
  • nutrition education in group settings – knowledge building
  • dietary counselling in group settings – dietary change
  • co-facilitating groups


Improving nutrition education and food literacy

  • educational theories and application to nutrition education
  • defining food (and health) literacy and building food literacy in groups
  • applying marketing principles to facilitate sustainable, positive food, nutrition, and health changes
  • creative approaches to promoting healthy eating, nutrition education and dietary counselling
  • successful interventions in different groups, including Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and Culturally and linguistically diverse groups
  • Nutrition education/dietary counselling
  • develop, implement, and evaluate effective and culturally-sensitive and safe education/counselling sessions and programs for groups
  • documenting group programs
  • peer review and support

Assessment strategy and rationale

Four assessment tasks are sequenced to progressively support students' learning and development of professional competence through authentic assessment.

Assessment task 1, (group assessment) relates to the process of delivering a group session and extends theoretical understanding of successful groups through reporting on the planning and delivery of a group session.

Assessment task 2 (written and oral task), requires students to examine the structure of successful groups and programs and use this to plan a suitable education session for a diverse audience. The process of examining delivery of groups education sessions to diverse groups will inform the third assessment task.

Assessment task 3 requires students to report on findings and learnings from assessment tasks one and two and critically reflect on the application of the process in when implemented across different cultural groups.

Assessment task 4 (graded hurdle), requires students to commence development of their professional practice portfolio. Students will commence collection of evidence of developing professional competence. This task is a hurdle to ensure students demonstrate the competency standards required by Dietitians Australia.

Overview of assessments

To pass the unit, students must demonstrate that they have achieved each learning outcome, passed any graded or ungraded hurdle tasks and obtain a total mark of 50% in the unit as the minimum standard.

Assessment 1: Written assessment task Enables s...

Assessment 1: Written assessment task

Enables students to develop experience in planning and working with groups.

Weighting

30%

Learning Outcomes LO1

Assessment 2: Written and oral assessment task E...

Assessment 2: Written and oral assessment task

Enables students to demonstrate ability to plan and deliver group education sessions for diverse audiences e.g. Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders, Culturally and linguistically diverse groups.

Weighting

30%

Learning Outcomes LO2, LO3, LO4

Assessment 3: Multimedia assessment task Enables...

Assessment 3: Multimedia assessment task

Enables students to report on findings, learnings from group task and applications for group work with different cultural groups.

Weighting

35%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO3, LO4

Assessment 4: Professional practice portfolio (*G...

Assessment 4: Professional practice portfolio (*Graded Hurdle)

Enables students to gather evidence to demonstrate competence to practice.

Weighting

*Graded Hurdle

5%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO3, LO4

*If a student has not achieved a mark of ≥ 50% for the graded hurdles, one re-attempt may be offered for each to allow demonstration of an appropriate level of competency.

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

The unit content will be delivered over 12 weeks.

The learning and teaching strategy adopted aligns with the sequencing of the learning outcomes and consists of three phases that are designed to provide students with a developmental learning experience. The unit begins with approaches designed to support acquisition of specialist knowledge needed to explore the theoretical underpinnings for successful group membership, and group work, and for facilitating dietary change through nutrition education and dietary counselling in these settings. The approaches used to facilitate students’ learning include online learning modules and readings. The unit then builds on this theoretical knowledge and assists students to develop understanding and then application through practical skills development first through applied tutorials and then case studies and role play. Overall, the approaches used in this unit have a constructively aligned developmental sequence designed to progressively, and logically, support students learning in ways that maximise the perceived (and actual) relevance and value of each stage. As an overarching strategy, this is expected to engender high levels of engagement, efficiency, and effectiveness in students’ study behaviours, and to maximise their learning achievements. This strategy and approaches will allow students to meet the aim, learning outcomes and graduate attributes of the unit. Learning and teaching approaches will reflect respect for the individual as an independent learner. Students will be expected to take responsibility for their learning and to participate actively in learning activities.

Representative texts and references

Representative texts and references

Australian Government Department of Health. (2015). Australian Dietary Guidelines. https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/.

Australian Government Department of Health. (2015). Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand. https://www.nrv.gov.au/.

Bauer, K. D., Liou, D. & Sokolik, C. A. (2020). Nutrition Counselling and Education Skill Development. (4th Ed.). Cengage Learning.

Contento, I. & Koch, P. A. (2020). Nutrition Education: Linking Research, Theory and Practice. (4th Ed.). Jones and Bartlett.

Croxford, S, Itsiopoulos, C, Forsyth, A. et al. Ed. (2015). Food and Nutrition Throughout Life. Allen & Unwin.

Gandy, J. Ed. (2019). Manual of Dietetic Practice. 6th Edition. Wiley.

US Department of Agriculture. (2020). Dietary Guidelines from Around the World. https://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/dietary-guidelines-around-world.

Universities Australia. (2011). What is Cultural Competence? A Discussion of the Literature. In Universities Australia National Best Practice Framework for Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities. (pp. 37-41) https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/National-Best-Practice-Framework-for-Indigenous-Cultural-Competency-in-Australian-Universities.pdf.

Whitney, E.N., Crowe, T.,S.s Cameron-Smith, D., Walsh, A., and Rady Rolfes, S. (2014) Understanding Nutrition: Australian and New Zealand Edition (2nd E). Cengage Learning.

Worsley, T. (2008). Nutrition Promotion: Theories and methods, systems and settings. Allen & Unwin.

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