Evolving Roles in Learning

Nursing 6300

Week 2: Discussion: Evolving Roles in Learning

Post your ideas on the roles of learners and educators in your practice setting. Note: In describing personal examples, do not use actual names. Your post should address the following:

First paragraph

Describe a teaching/learning situation in which you participated, either as a learner or as a teacher, in your nursing practice. Analyze the experience to determine the degree to which power for making major educational decisions was shared among the instructor and the learner or learners.

Second paragraph

What assumptions, in your view, were being made about the roles of the instructor and learner in this situation? Provide a rationale for your views.

Third paragraph

State whether you think this educational encounter was more learner-centered or teacher-centered, and explain why you think so.

Fourth paragraph

Reflecting on other examples of teaching/learning in your nursing practice, provide twoillustrations of how the roles of learners—whether they are nurses or patients—would change if learner-centered principles were incorporated to a greater extent. Similarly, describe two ways in which the roles of educators would change.

Fifth paragraph

What benefits and challenges would arise as a result of these changes in the balance of power between learner and educator?

Sixth paragraph

Cite one concise argument you could give to colleagues for why learner-centered education would be beneficial in your work setting.

Seventh paragraph

Summarize discussion

Reading Resources (see attached chapters)

• Course Text: Developing Learner-Centered Teaching: A Practical Guide for FacultyChapter 5—“The Role of the Instructor”

  How can educators become less “teacher-centered” in their educational approaches? This chapter defines how the role of the teacher must change in order to facilitate learner-centered teaching.

  Chapter 6—“The Responsibility for Learning”

  After reviewing characteristics of college students today and traditional methods for promoting learning, this chapter identifies the actions required of students to make learner-centered education successful. Included are suggestions for encouraging students to accept increasing responsibility for their learning.

  Chapter 8—“The Balance of Power”

  This chapter describes the ways that power can be redistributed in educational settings to encourage greater learner responsibility and, in turn, more effective learning.

• Course Text: National League for Nursing’s Certification Governance Committee. (2005). The scope of practice for academic nurse educators. National League for Nursing: New York, NY.The role of academic nursing education in advancing professional nursing is discussed in this document. Also, the document provides the National League for Nursing’s (NLN) hallmarks of excellence in nursing and their core competencies of nurse educators.
• Article: Diekelmann, N., & Lampe, S. (2004). Student-centered pedagogies: Co-creating compelling experiences using the new pedagogies. Journal of Nursing Education, 43(6), 245–247. (CINAHL Plus with Full Text)This article recounts the experience of a nurse educator who gradually transformed her teaching by being less focused on “covering content” and more attuned to allowing learning experiences to be co-created by her students.