A Combination of the Traditional Approach and Online Methods in Conducting Classes

The purpose of this paper is to describe an observation of a problem, issue, or situation during my practicum experience. My practicum had been filled with educational classes filled with lectures and simulations. One thing that has assisted me in the adjustment of the role. As an educator has been the strategy of reading the higher education literature to gain a better understanding of the issues influencing higher education according to Halstead & Frank (2011).

My preceptor reads journals and online nursing education information every day. And has emphasized how important it is for me to become a successful educator. This type of approach to teaching and learning has developed. As a synthesis of inquiry-based, scenario-based and solution-focused approaches. Which strongly promotes active student learning (Rochester, Kelly, Disler, White, Forer, & Matuik, 2012).

The issue that I have observed in most of the educational classes. Is the way that my preceptor has made the andragogical shift in education. As stated by Barrington & Street (2008) from teaching to learning and from teacher to learner. She has mastered the art of facilitating rather than controlling learning. The nurses that attend these classes are adult learners and most are millennial learners. These learners, according to McCurry & Martins, 2009, are sheltered, special, confident, team-oriented, achieving, pressured, and conventional with their views more global and multicultural. With all the distractions these students cause during class, such as texting, and reading their phones, she has changed her teaching strategies that engages these nurses to be interactive, group focused, objective, and experiential states McCurry & Martins, 2009. In one observation, she had finished her PowerPoint presentation and asked if there were any questions, no one answered. She proceeded to divide them into groups for simulation practice. She and one other educator gave each group a scenario and they were to use their critical thinking skills to solve the problem. During the PowerPoint, they seemed that they were not paying attention. They performed each scenario perfectly. The focus on a realistic patient scenario facilitates. The inclusion of clinical and communication skills according to Berragan, 2011. As seen in this practicum lesson, these nurses learned. By the new strategies rather than by the traditional methods of reading in textbooks, using didactic lecture with or without Power Point slides, incorporating objective testing, and having students critique papers of published research, states McCurry & Martins, 2009.

A different plan for approaching this lesson would be to show a DVD, portraying an example of the simulation scenario, discussing the scenario, then break the group up for the simulation lesson. The students would be allowed to discuss their thinking and actions with their role partners, which highlighted the importance of teamwork and leadership, according to Rochester et al., 2012. This lesson taught me how important it is for the educator to make lesson preparation a high priority to allow the nurses to benefit from their lessons.

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