Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Learning Style Preferences and Preferred Faculty Teaching Methods Compared to the Actual Methods Used by Faculty

Aim. The aim of this study was to examine the generational differences of undergraduate nursing students’ learning style preferences and their preferred faculty teaching methods to the teaching methods used most often by nursing faculty in the classroom. Background. Nursing educators are responsible for creating learning environments that are effective for students that are in different generations and nursing educational pathways. Each generational cohort brings a collective set of characteristics, expectations, and preferences to the classroom, challenging educators to balance the generational learning styles of all students with respectable, evidence-based, pedagogical approaches. This study was one of the first to explore Generation Z’s preferred teaching method preferences used in the classroom. Method. Both descriptive and inferential statistical procedures were used for this study. A one-sample Wilcoxon signed-rank test was performed to evaluate the difference between each of the learning style preferences, followed by a Kruskal-Wallis test that compared the generational differences to the learning styles. A Likelihood-ratio Chi-square (LR χ2) was performed to assess for association between generational cohorts and their preferred teaching methods used in the classroom. Results. One hundred eighty-four undergraduate nursing students; and sixty-seven nursing faculty from ten Southeastern states were included in the sample for this study. Using the Index of Learning Styles® survey, results found nursing students had either a balanced active/reflective and sequential/global learning style, or a sensing or visual learning styles. With regards to preferred teaching methods, lecture, and the use of visual aids in the classroom were identified as the top teaching methods preferred by both student and faculty participants. Conclusion. Nurse educators are responsible for creating learning environments that are inclusive of students from diverse generational cohorts, spanning six decades and in multiple nursing educational pathways. These results provide new information for nursing educators to utilize in various academic settings

Education, imperialism and national efficiency in England 1895-1905

Summary available: p.iv-vi

Making Disciples: The Effects of Technology Integration Coaching

This paper describes a pilot study of collegial coaching for technology integration at two private Christian schools. Two students nearing completion of a Master’s in Education in Curriculum and Instruction with a Specialization in Instructional Technology each coached three fellow teachers, self-described as digital immigrants, to integrate technology into their teaching. The coaches spent an average of 15 hours per teacher brainstorming, teaching, and facilitating technology integration. Information obtained from a variety of data sources (interviews, a post-coaching questionnaire, a focus group, and analyses of journals kept by both coaches and coached teachers) revealed the positive effects of their collegial coaching and suggested ideas for optimizing coaching for technology integration

Community Service Activity by Western Washington University Students: Its Extent, Nature, and Impact on the Surrounding Community

Executive Summary: At the request of President Morse and the Student Employment Center\u27s Community Service/Volunteer Program, Western\u27s 1994 alumni survey documented the extent and nature of community service activity by Western students, both as part of their course work and as non-course-based volunteer activities. We refer to these activities as service learning. We also measured students\u27 impressions concerning the value of their service experiences and estimated the impact of students\u27 community service activities on the Bellingham and Whatcom County communities. Findings are based on responses by 1513 of the 2219 graduates in the Class of \u2793. Asked whether they had ever participated in any community service activities.. .either as part of a course, part of a group, or individually.. .that assisted the public or a non-profit organization.... almost half (48.9%) responded in the affirmative. Just over one-fourth (25.8%) report one or more internship experiences included under the service learning heading. Slightly more (27.0%) report one or more service learning experiences that were course projects or assignments. On the non-academic side, 23.6% participated at least once via their roles as students, with a student group or organization, but not for credit. About one-third (32.6%) report volunteering at least once in any other (non-campus) community service during their time at Western. Some students are extremely active volunteers. The great majority (88.1%) of students who report any service learning report at least two episodes. Fully 14.2% of the sample (29.0% of those who engaged in any service learning) report five or more separate episodes. On the other hand, we estimate that in any one year, only one in eight Western students participates in any form of service learning, academic or non-academic in origin. The most common service learning activities are in the social, health, and mental health services, where 54.7% of those with any service learning experience volunteered at least once. Those services included work for programs that serve the sexually abused or battered, the aged, children, those in crisis, those with disabilities, the homeless and hungry, as well as work in ethnicity-related programs, family planning , health-related, and mental-health related services. Another 23.8% worked at least once in children\u27s educational settings such as volunteering at schools or at camps, tutoring, and coaching. One in seven (14.4%) volunteered on campus. Another 13.4% volunteered at least once to work for environmental goals. Others volunteered for religious organizations, community events, literacy, the arts, the legal system, and political causes. A list of the specific organizations for which the Class of \u2793 volunteered is included in the full report. Extrapolating from survey responses, we estimate conservatively that during a typical school year, Western students engage in about 4,600 episodes of volunteer service learning activity. Just under half is based in courses, either as internships or as projects within a course. The report analyzes which students volunteer most often. Findings include the following conclusions: most variation in rates of course-based service learning is explained by the different opportunities provided by different major fields; students who volunteer often are perhaps slightly more serious about their education and are more oriented to learning than to credentialling; that women engage in more service learning; that those whose goals emphasize service to the society volunteer more often, and that those whose goals emphasize income levels volunteer less often. Asked how valuable their service learning activities were, graduates respond extremely positively. Four dimensions of possible value were specified. For two, providing new awareness and improving you as a person, nearly three-fifths (58.4% and 58.3%) answered very valuable, one of the most positive set of responses to any question our surveys ask about Western. Asked about the possible value of providing career-related skills, 44.0% said very, while 15.5% said not at all. For course-based service learning activities only, the percent who say very rises to 47.2%. This finding is worthy of special note because students consistently give low ratings to departments\u27 advising concerning careers. Finally, 41.7% say their service learning activities were very valuable at improving your educational experience at Western, overall. The more service learning activities each graduate reports having participated in, the more value s/he ascribes to the experience. In addition, the great majority of service learning participants say Western should definitely (64.7%) or probably (29.1%) ...increase opportunities to combine community service activities with course work. Among students who did not participate in any service learning activities while at Western, a smaller majority support expanded opportunities, with 38.8% saying definitely and 46.4% saying probably

First Year Experience Technical Report

Executive Summary: This report was prepared as background to ongoing discussions concerning the first year experience, in particular the study group by that name headed by Dean Marie Eaton. Data come from surveys of a cohort of new freshmen and new transfers, who entered Western in Fall, 1994. They were surveyed that Fall and in the Spring of that same academic year. Only about one-third of new students, many of whom failed to attend Summer advising sessions, find the transition to Western very or moderately difficult. The great majority expected Western to be more difficult than their previous schools. Most found that to be true, but about one in five found it less true than they expected. Just over half of freshmen felt a need for advice about OURs during Fall quarter, with about 40% wanting advisement concerning entry into a major. By Spring, all these had declined--OUR advising needs, precipitously--but need for career or life planning had risen from 21.8% to 31.5%. With the exception of OUR advising, where three-fourths of need was met, one-third or less of the desire for advising eventuated in advising. For transfers, well over half felt need for advisement concerning entry into a major. By Spring, need had declined significantly. For transfers, just over half of all felt need for advisement led to advising. Students\u27 sources of advice are largely informal, with other students and friends leading all sources, followed by orientation and university publications. Advising services and faculty are seldom listed as the main source of advice. The report provides a series of findings relevant to course access during the first year. For freshmen, course access is very good Fall quarter among those who attend Summerstart. By Winter, access becomes less good, although 85.5% of all courses taken by freshmen were ones the students wanted. Among transfers, the pattern is reversed. During Fall, 1994, nearly 20% of courses were all [students] could get at the time. By Winter, the corresponding figure was below 8%. In addition, access pressures are illustrated by the remarkably high use of add codes to gain entry to courses. While modes during students\u27 first quarter here, by Spring of their first year, fully 31.4% of freshmen and 39.9% of transfers say they got into at least one class using add codes

A Survey: Services for Maladjusted School Children

There is strong evidence to support the contention that programs for meeting the needs of all behaviorally disordered and socially maladjusted school age children simply do not exist