Teaching Methodologies in Nursing Education

Active learning strategies 1

Title: Literature Review

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  NU 593: Nursing research Methodology
  
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  Faculty: Dr. Raisa Gul & Ms. Yasmin Parpio
  
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  Shams ul Huda
  
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  MScN Year I
  
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  The Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery
  

I have fully acknowledged the work of others in an appropriate way. I have not used, received nor have I given material without permission while writing this assignment. I affirm that I have maintained the principles of honesty and integrity in my academic work.

Active learning strategies:

Pakistan is a developing country many discipline and profession is in transition phase to prepare graduate according to the need and challenges of 21

^st

century. First step for the development of higher education was taken in 1974, the government established university grant commission (UGC) to institutionalize the higher education in Pakistan, later on in 2002 Higher education commission (HEC) was established through an ordinance (HEC ordinance, 2002). HEC regularize higher education in Pakistan and worked to develop curriculum, to train faculty and to improve assessment systems. Currently, nursing education in Pakistan is in conversion stage from traditional diploma course to degree program. Nursing education in Pakistan was started soon after the independence and in 1973 Pakistan nursing council was established to monitor and regularize the nursing education in Pakistan (Pakistan Nursing Council Act, 1973). The revolution of nursing education started in eighties, after the inauguration of Aga Khan University in 1983. First time in Pakistan nursing education came under the umbrella of university, Aga Khan University school of nursing (AKU-SON) in collaboration with McMaster university started degree program Post RN BScN in 1988, and Generic BScN in 1997 (Upvall, Hashwani,Shehla, Hussain, & Rafat Jan, 1999).

Significance of the study:

Learning is life long process, active learning is a process in which students are doing thing and thinking about what they are doing (Bonwell & Elison, 1991). The purpose of nursing education and research is to improve patient care and promote health. Without quality education we cannot complete our dream of quality education, the purpose of degree program will only be accomplished when our graduate has reasoning, critical thinking and problem solving skills. But majority of institutes offering diploma, BSc Nursing and Post RN BSc Nursing programs are using traditional and didactic method of teaching, which focuses on imparting of information, rather than development of critical thinking skills. The emphasis of Pakistani education system is on subject knowledge and certain fixed skill contrary to it, the international education system focus on conceptual and pedagogical underpinning (Ali, 2011). Yet no study has been done in Pakistan to explore what teaching strategies nursing educator are using in class room as well in clinical sitting. Active learning strategies focused on problem solving skills, critical thinking, communication skill and collaborative skills of student (Oermann, 2005).

Research question:

1. What teaching strategies are used in nursing educational institute in Pakistan?
2. What are active learning strategies?
3. How often educator use active learning strategies?

Purpose of study:

The purpose of this study is to explore what teaching methodologies are used in nursing educational institute to enhance learning of nursing students. Moreover this study will also explore the knowledge and attitude of nursing educators about active learning strategy.

Search strategy:

After selection of the research question key concepts were extracted from the question and different key terms were identified. The key terms active learning strategy (ALS), active learning, traditional learning, critical thinking, higher education in Pakistan, active learning strategy in Pakistan and nursing education in Pakistan. These terms were searched in online database Pub MED, CINAHL, Education Research Complete and Google scholars. Initially 50 articles related to active learning strategies were downloaded having both national and international studies. A table was formed to keep the relevant information of all studies in one place.

Several studies have been done in developed countries to identify the significance of active learning strategies in nursing and other discipline. In Pakistan one study has been done to assess the prefer learning style of students in Karachi university, but they compare effectiveness of different teaching methodologies including lecture, brainstorming, group discussion, role play etc. (Sajjad,2011). The study was done only in arts group of university and opinions of students based on their experiences were taken. Another study was done to assess the effectiveness of active learning strategies versus didactic learning, conclude that active learning strategies was pleasurable and result in deeper understanding of concept as compared to traditional learning (Ahmad & Mahmood, 2010). ALS are practiced in developed countries in all discipline including medicine, engineering and nursing and several researches found evidences that it enhance student learning and thinking. But in Pakistani context I could not found single study to assess what teaching strategies faculty are using in class room as well on clinical? This study will explore the common teaching methodologies and knowledge about active learning strategies of nursing faculty; it will identify the area for further improvement in nursing education.

Literature review:

Active learning is student focus and participation of student is valued. According to Bell and Kahrhof (2006) active-learning is a process in which students are involved in different activities to understand facts, ideas and skills. ALS is student focus and encourages participation and involvement of student in learning process. Mainstream of Pharmacy colleges in the United stated has adopted the ALS and further research need to be conducted to effectively utilize active-learning (Stewart, Brown, Wyatt, &Clavier, 2011).Likewise in medical discipline educator deliver huge and multifaceted content in short time which has no role in improvement of reasoning and critical thinking skills of student. ALS changed the learning process in positive way and increase student understanding (Graffam, 2007). Same results were concluded in another study conducted in engineering discipline (Randeree, 2005).

Active-learning strategies are not limited to class room teaching, it is also used in on line and distant teaching. According to Phillips (2005) active leaning strategies in online education engaged student having different learning styles. Information technology development made it possible to experience on line learning enjoyable and user friendly technology made it convenient for students. Integration of Active-learning changed the online learning in high quality educational experience (Murphy, 2006).

Constructivist approach is largely applied in modern learning process, and this was included in all three models of nursing. Constructive learning, cooperative learning and reflective learning were present in all three models of nursing i.e. apprenticeship, university based and contemporary model (Greenawalt & Brzycki, 2009). The learning styles of today generation is different, nursing educators should come up with innovative strategies which strengthen the student analyzing and synthesizing ability (Arhin & Cormier, 2006). Students perceived Active-learning more effective and interesting as compared to traditional assignment method. When Innovative learning strategies and traditional learning were compared, student rated active learning strategies more effective (McCurry & Martin, 2009). Active-learning modify the assignment made it appealing to students. Didactic learning strategies were not capable to produce graduate, who work in complex health care system. According to Brown, Kirkpatrick, Mangum, and Avery (2006) student centeredness approach best served the dynamic need of modern health care system. The student role in this approach is transformed from passive learner to participative and self-directed learner, while faculty role from instructor to facilitator. Active-learning affected students in positive way and it is student friendly (Bowles, 2006). Active-learning promote critical thinking skills, according to Kaddoura(2011) when Case based learning (CBL) was compared to lecture based learning, CBL was more effective in developing critical thinking. CBL is also used in clinical to promote clinical judgment of students (Kathie & Nielsen, 2008). We have reviewed the international literature which supported active-leaning strategies both in class room as well on clinical teaching.

In Pakistan very limited work has been done to explore the effective learning strategy which best suited the requirement of Pakistani students. Cooperative- learning provided opportunity to students to interact with faculty as well other classmates which make the learning process interesting and knowledge gaining (Ahmad & Nasir, 2010). On other hand, the main teaching method is still lecture method, according to study at Karachi University revealed that lecture is the most prefer method of teaching (Sajjad, 2011). ALS required human as well infrastructure to adopt these studies, but the learning environment of class rooms was not effective to develop critical thinking skills in students and faculty was also fully aware to develop student’s critical thinking (Gul, Cassuma, Ahmad, Khan, Saeed & Parpio, 2010). Different Active-learning strategies has compared in a study done in Aga Khan University and yielded that Problem based learning and concept map was more effective in development of students’ knowledge, demonstration in development of skills and reflective writing help to change the attitude of students( Khan, Ali, Vazir, Barolia & Rehan, 2012). The focus of distant learning is also on content memorization rather than development of critical thinking. According to a study conducted at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) concluded that the focus of distant education in AIOU is more on understanding of content rather than developing critical reflection (Buzdar & Ali, 2013). The above findings are congruent with my personal experience that active-learning is not practiced in majority educational institute of Pakistan, beside initiation of degree program in nursing our academia is not prepared to inculcate active-learning strategies to enhance critical thinking.

Restate the question:

On the basis of above literature review my research question is relevant in Pakistani context and I restated it:

1. What teaching strategies are practiced in nursing education in Pakistan?
2. What nursing faculty mean by active learning?
3. How often educator use active learning strategies?

The problem is significant in Pakistan and especially in nursing discipline, as nursing education is in transition phase, so introduction of active-learning will enhance critical thinking and problem solving skills of students. ALS has to established its root in education system, According to (Ahmad and Mahmood, 2010) ALS should be incorporated in teacher education so; they practice it in college and school level. My research study will identify the dominant teaching strategies of faculty and their knowledge about ALS, on the basis of study finding training and developmental program for faculty can be proposed. Earlier the researcher Gul, Cassuma, Ahmad, Khan, Saeed and Parpio (2010) recommend that educator need to have skills to integrate critical thinking in classes.

Conclusion:

In conclusion the phenomena of interest are to explore about nursing educators practices both in class room as well on clinical and to find out their understanding of active learning strategies. Quantitative approach best answer the question that what learning strategies are practiced and what is the knowledge of nursing educators about active learning. The philosophical underpinnings of quantitative approach are in positivist paradigm; positivist paradigm focuses on reality. In this paradigm objectivity is desired, and deductive processes are used. Moreover the focus is to measure quantitative information and statistical analysis is used. As I am describing and measuring which teaching strategy are mainly used in nursing education and also interested to explore the knowledge of nursing educator about ALS, so I will definitely go with quantitative approach.

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