Elsevier

Nurse Education Today

Volume 33, Issue 2, February 2013, Pages 148-151
Nurse Education Today

Are students’ impressions of improved learning through active learning methods reflected by improved test scores?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2011.10.023Get rights and content

Summary

Purpose

To report the transformation from lecture to more active learning methods in a maternity nursing course and to evaluate whether student perception of improved learning through active-learning methods is supported by improved test scores.

Methods

The process of transforming a course into an active-learning model of teaching is described. A voluntary mid-semester survey for student acceptance of the new teaching method was conducted. Course examination results, from both a standardized exam and a cumulative final exam, among students who received lecture in the classroom and students who had active learning activities in the classroom were compared.

Results

Active learning activities were very acceptable to students. The majority of students reported learning more from having active-learning activities in the classroom rather than lecture-only and this belief was supported by improved test scores. Students who had active learning activities in the classroom scored significantly higher on a standardized assessment test than students who received lecture only.

Implications

The findings support the use of student reflection to evaluate the effectiveness of active-learning methods and help validate the use of student reflection of improved learning in other research projects.

Section snippets

Background

There has been a push to move away from traditional classroom lectures towards more active learning pedagogies. Benner et al. (2009) described a gap between nursing education and practice. Their recommendations included integration of classroom and clinical teaching techniques, moving from an emphasis on critical thinking to an emphasis on clinical reasoning, and to develop teaching methods that are focused on patient care, such as simulations, unfolding cases, and live interviews. Mikol (2005)

Process of change

This junior level (third year) baccalaureate maternal and newborn nursing course historically utilized traditional lecture methods in the classroom. I recognized the following problems: students generally did not prepare for class in advance by reading or reviewing materials outside class time; students struggled to apply what they were learning; and lecture does not generally improve student critical thinking skills and application of knowledge. In order to address these concerns and in an

Methods

Students in the Spring 2010 semester (n = 44), the control group, received traditional lecture in the classroom. Students in the Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 semesters (n = 95), referred to as the test group, received the lecture content via pre-recorded Tegrity (http://www.tegrity.com) and/or Adobe Breeze (http://www.adobe.com) lectures and active-learning methods were used during class time. Students were expected to review the pre-recorded lectures, read their texts, and utilize other information

Student survey

There were 95 students enrolled in the two test semesters, therefore to yield a ± 5% precision level with a confidence level of 95% and p = 0.5, we needed a minimum sample size of 48; for a ± 10% precision level, we needed a sample size of 77 (Isreal, 2011). Fifty-one (51) (54% response rate) participants completed the voluntary student survey. See Table 1 for a summary of survey results. Eighty percent (80%, n = 41) of the responding students strongly agreed or agreed with liking the small group

Discussion

As only fifty-four percent (54%) of the students completed the voluntary survey, one cannot be sure of all students’ opinions. There were no course points given for completing the survey which could have contributed to the low response rate. However, based on the minimum sample size needed, one can estimate that 70 to 90% of students in this population preferred the active learning methods. The majority of students’ responses to the survey were favorable and the verbal comments made by students

Conclusions

This article adds to the growing research base for evidence based teaching regarding active learning techniques in the classroom. In this study, student reflection of improved learning is supported by improved test scores. These findings give support to other studies where only students’ reflections were measured. These findings also give more support for active-learning and application-based teaching methods. Additional studies are still needed to strengthen and confirm these findings.

References (13)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (0)

View full text