Teaching strategies that promote critical thinking in associate-degree nursing students: Perceptions of associate-degree nursing educators

• Main Author: Linthacum, Mary D
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2011
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Academic degrees; Basic Skills; Case Studies; College Faculty; College students; Critical thinking; Educational Change; Educational Objectives; Health education; Learning Activities; Learning Processes; Learning Strategies; Learning Theories; Lifelong Learning; Nursing; Nursing Education; Nursing Research; Nursing Students; Pedagogy; Perceptions; Teachers; Teaching methods; Thinking Skills
• ISBN: 1124904573; 9781124904573

As the nursing profession continues to stress the importance of critical thinking, nursing educators need to receive more continuing education on critical thinking teaching and learning strategies. The prupose of this study was to investigate how associate-degree nursing educators perceived critical thinking and which critical thinking strategies they used and implemented to develop critical thinking skills in associate-degree nursing students. This research was designed as a nonexperimental descriptive study using a convenience sample of 90 associate-degree nursing educators from four community colleges in Texas. Data were collected by means of a 13-item questionnaire. Participants were invited to provide their personal definition of critical thinking. The responses submitted revealed the participants had difficulty in articulating a personal definition of critical thinking. Fourtheen teaching and learning strategies were rated for effectiveness in promoting critical thinking and frequency of use. The strategies emerging as most effective included clinical reasoning, problem-based learning, problem solving, case studies and simulation. The strategies selected as the most frequently used were the nursing process, simulation, problem solving, clinical reasoning and case studies. Time allocated for the subject being taught was reported as the greatest barrier for not being able to implement critical thinking strategies in the classroom. Other hindering factors cited included preparation time, organizational culture of the institution, level of the student being taught, and leadership of the department. Over half of the participants reported they did not feel prepared to teach critical thinking.