Abstract
BackgroundDeveloping students’ generic capabilities is a major goal of university education as it can help to equip students with life-long learning skills and promote holistic personal development. However, traditional didactic teaching has not been very successful in achieving this aim. Kember and Leung’s Teaching and Learning Model suggests an interactive learning environment has a strong impact on developing students’ generic capabilities. Metacognitive awareness is also known to be related to generic capability development. This study aimed to assess changes on the development of generic capabilities and metacognitive awareness after the introduction of active learning strategy among nursing students.MethodsThis study adopted a quasi-experimental single group, matched pre- and posttest design. It was conducted in a school of nursing at a university in Hong Kong. Active learning approaches included the flipped classroom (an emphasis on pre-reading) and enhanced lectures (the breaking down of a long lecture into several mini-lectures and supplemented by interactive learning activities) were introduced in a foundational nursing course. The Capabilities Subscale of the Student Engagement Questionnaire and the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory were administered to two hundred students at the start (T0) and at the end of the course (T1). A paired t-test was performed to examine the changes in general capabilities and metacognitive awareness between T0 and T1.ResultsA total of 139 paired pre- and post-study responses (69.5 %) were received. Significant improvements were observed in the critical thinking (p < 0.001), creative thinking (p = 0.03), problem-solving (p < 0.001) and communication skills (p = 0.04) with the implementation of active learning. Significant changes were also observed in knowledge of cognition (p < 0.001) and regulation of cognition (p < 0.001) in the metacognitive awareness scales.ConclusionsActive learning is a novel and effective teaching approach that can be applied in the nursing education field. It has great potential to enhance students’ development of generic capabilities and metacognitive awareness.
Highlights
Developing students’ generic capabilities is a major goal of university education as it can help to equip students with life-long learning skills and promote holistic personal development
According to Kember [1], these necessary skills or attributes are generally referred to as generic capabilities and include creative thinking, self-managed learning, problem solving, adaptability, communication skills, interpersonal skills and group work
Since the active learning approaches were incorporated in the Fundamentals of Nursing I course, the two hundred Year 1 students who enrolled this course were eligible to participate in the study
Summary
Developing students’ generic capabilities is a major goal of university education as it can help to equip students with life-long learning skills and promote holistic personal development. Kember and Leung’s Teaching and Learning Model suggests an interactive learning environment has a strong impact on developing students’ generic capabilities. This study aimed to assess changes on the development of generic capabilities and metacognitive awareness after the introduction of active learning strategy among nursing students. Teachers are very used to applying the long-standing tradition of highly didactic teaching. This method can disseminate a large amount of information, it offers few opportunities for feedback, student engagement, peer interaction, or the application of knowledge [3]. Educational experts have provided new insights that suggest successful learning is a much more complex process than just listening [4]
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