Nichol Nicla

I have learned about Fink's taxonomy and the value of alternate assessments. I think it might help the students to talk more in class about why we have the tests we have in class, why we assess the way we assess in lab, and why the NCLEX tests how it tests. I think the students forget that there has to be a knowledge base to safely perform the skills and all parts need to be in place to be a safely practicing nurse.

I'm thinking about how we can make our case studies more of a problem-based learning activity so students are having to think through the role of a nurse and expected findings related to a disease process. I think our case studies do not really require the students to put the pieces together because the pieces are all presented. A problem based learning might actually help them think through expected findings and appropriate actions.

I like the Fink's taxonomy that includes the student being asked to learn about self through the learning experience. This is very applicable to nursing in that we are always asking students to examine and reflect on personal bias and how this might inadvertently affect the care they provide.

I think we use traditional assessments in the classroom and authentic assessments in lab, clinical, and SIM. We have to  know our students have an understanding of disease process and consequence, and appropriate nursing actions but we also need to know that they can perform the skills necessary to practice safely. It's important to have both types of assessments because nursing is knowledge and competency based.

I think this section really reminded me that it doesn't take a whole lot of time to make a daily difference. I also found it interesting that we should take breaks after 90 minutes of work. I definitely forget to take a moment because I am squeezing as much work as I can into my desk time during the day.

Experimental learning sounds very Montessori based. I think you'd have to have a certain level of dedication and drive for this model to be successful. I'm not sure that all students are disciplined enough for this model to ensure they learn all that they need to learn.

I like that with cooperative learning, grades are to be individual and group based. I do not know many people who really love a group project, but having been in leadership, I absolutely know how imperative it is to learn to work with people towards a common goal even when you don't all love each other! I think it is an essential professional life social skill to learn to get along when you don't feel like getting along.

We use reflection a lot with our nursing students. We teach them one way of doing things and when they have clinicals on the floor, they may see RNs doing things very different from how we taught them or even doing exactly what we told students not to do. Reflection is important in putting together the why of why we teach them an evidenced based practice method and why this really is best practice. It is important for students to think about how what they are learning applies to (or maybe doesn't apply) to the real world.

I like that this module talks about providing choice for adult learners. We always have multiple activities available so we can choose which will be most effective given what the students feel like doing and the mood of the classroom.

I learned that when we use ATI, we are using predictive learning and that this has other applications outside of ATI. I guess I really thought this was unique to this program.