Elsevier

Nurse Education Today

Volume 25, Issue 7, October 2005, Pages 502-508
Nurse Education Today

Approaches to teaching: Current opinions and related research

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2005.03.007Get rights and content

Summary

Three approaches to teaching and learning are introduced. Each approach has its relative merits and disadvantages. Ideally, each approach should not be used in isolation. The use of facilitatory approaches to teaching and learning should be encouraged to assist the development of problem solving, decision making skills and creative and critical thinking in nurses, particularly those studying on competency-based education and training courses and programmes.

Introduction

During the last decade, nursing practice has changed from being medically driven to become increasingly nurse-led. The evolving roles and responsibilities that nurses encounter impinges on the need for the constant update of knowledge and skills. Many of the developments in nursing have emerged following the implementation of the NHS Plan (DoH, 2000). Nurses now manage the care of case loads of patients and take responsibility for medicines management decisions. These new roles and responsibilities triggered the development of competency-based education and training programmes such as nurse prescribing courses, first contact practitioner and nurse practitioner degree programmes. In order to meet the needs of these professional educational courses, a range of teaching and learning strategies need to be developed and incorporated into academic programmes.

The changing face of teaching has moved away from didacticism to learning facilitation and with this is the need for teachers to play different roles and use new techniques (Griffin, 2002, Jarvis, 2002). Three main styles of teaching are propounded; didactic, facilitative and socratic. Each of these approaches will be discussed. The diversity of styles provides a degree of flexibility that allows one to alter the task of teaching whether it is teacher-centred or student-centred. Jarvis (2002) views teaching as both an art and a science. In doing so, one can combine the authoritarian didacticism approach with the democratic facilitator’s approach with no limit on the combinations.

Section snippets

Didacticism

The lecture is “probably the most frequently employed teaching technique despite all the criticisms that have been levelled against it” (Jarvis, 1983, p. 117). It is “an economical means of transmitting factual information to a large audience, although there is no guarantee that effective learning will result” (Walkin, 2000, p. 55). The didactic approach to teaching primarily involves lecturing and is essentially teacher-centred (Entwistle, 1997). Fry et al. (2003) reminds us that although the

The facilitatory style of teaching and learning

Radical pedagogies such as constructivist approaches such as computer simulation, problem-based learning and decision-making strategies have challenged conventional classroom practice where the student is the recipient of new knowledge and the teacher is the knower. Teaching is “no longer seen as imparting knowledge and doing things to the student, but is redefined as facilitation of self-directed learning” (Tight, 1996, p. 26). In an attempt to alter this position, the teacher can use

The socratic style of teaching and learning

The socratic method of teaching also emphasises student-centredness and strongly opposes didacticism. Brownhill (2002) illustrates how teachers can use either authoritarian or non-authoritarian socratic teaching positions to enhance students to learn independently and become critical thinkers. Teachers provide the initial theoretical positions and introduce the associated inconsistencies and attributes in an attempt to raise awareness in students, initiate reflection and ponder on the key

Preparing students for new roles and responsibilities

To prepare learners for new roles and responsibilities they need to acquire both professional and university education to develop professional performance (Eraut, 1994). To become an experienced clinician who is proficient in clinical reasoning, a nurse has to attain specific clinical practice and develop nursing judgment, supported by a graduate academic background (O’Neill and Dulhy, 1997). This combination can provide a foundation for cognitive and psychomotor skill development that is

Conclusion

Three approaches to learning and teaching established, each has its own merits and usefulness in adult learning. The use of didactic and self-directed approaches to teaching should not be limited, and approaches that are student-centred such as process oriented approaches to teaching should be encouraged particularly in teaching scientific topics, questioning and preparing nurses for prescribing roles. Learning facilitation should be encouraged with effective preparation strategies in place to

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