Essay Instructions: Research and comment on the following 4 separately.
1. Student success is a two-way endeavor. The student must give 100% as well as the instructor needs to provide the students with a 100%. The student must take the responsibility to be prepared to learn the material assigned, turn in assignments on time, pay attention to what is being taught or discussed, and ask questions when needed. The instructor needs to be responsible to present the information in a format that the student can understand, be willing and prepared to answer questions, and realize that all students do not learn in the same way and be willing to change styles when needed.
Using remediation until a student passes a course is an effective way to assist the student to become successful. If the student is unable to pass the course, they cannot move on to the next course in the program and be successful in learning the required material to earn their degree. Early intervention would be the best solution to aiding the student to be successful. I read an article that discussed the use of a remediation course to aid the senior BSN students to pass the NCLEX-RN exam. The course was for 15 weeks and included instruction in test-taking, including identification of common test-taking errors, pacing for a timed exam, how to identify the key elements of a question, narrowing options, and nursing process and communication questions. The course also addressed test anxiety and an overview of the NCLEX-RN exam (Sifford & McDaniel, 2007). A commercially prepared exit exam was given to the students at the beginning of the course and again at the end of the course. The results indicated that the use of the remediation course was successful in increasing the scores on the exit exam. According to Sifford and McDaniel (2007), ?current data appear to support the conclusion that remediation intervention targeting test-taking strategies, anxiety reduction, and time management is effective for enhancing student success? (para. 18).
Reference:
Sifford, S., & McDaniel D. M. (2007). Results of a remediation program for students at risk for failure on the NCLEX exam. Nursing Education Perspectives. Retrieved from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Results+of+a+remediation+program+for+students+at+risk+for+failure+on...-a0159534800
2. For the stated position of ?Teachers don?t fail students; students fail themselves.? I think I both agree and disagree. A student must make a certain amount of effort in their own learning in the way of reading the materials, doing required homework and/ or assignments, showing up for class, etc. In this the old addage of "You can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink" applies. or "You get out what you put in." In this the teacher must also be prepared. You lead the horse but you also have water there for it to drink from. Knowing the presented course material isnt enough the instructor must also be able to put that material into words or examples that each student can learn from. Make it real to each of them in the way each of them learns best.
Learner-centered classrooms focus primarily on individual students' learning. The teacher's role is to facilitate growth by utilizing the interests and unique needs of students as a guide for meaningful instruction. Student-centered classrooms are by no means characterized by a free-for-all.These classrooms are goal-based. Students' learning is judged by whether they achieve predetermined, developmentally-oriented objectives. Basically meaning everyone can earn an A by mastering the material. Because people learn best when they hear, see, and manipulate variables, the method by which learning occurs is oftentimes experiential.A learner-centered teacher makes time to collaborate with others and problem solve as challenges evolve. This teacher spends his or her day researching new ideas and learning key concepts that students must acquire to gain competence. Evaluation is ongoing and done mostly in the context of students' learning.(TeacherVision, 2014).
TeacherVision (2014).Learner-Centered vs. Curriculum-Centered Teachers: Which Type Are You? Accedded May 7, 2014 from https://www.teachervision.com/teaching-methods-and-management/curriculum-planning/4786.html
3. According to an article written by Phillips (2005), ?visual learners learn by seeing pictures, may be fast-paced learners, and can be impatient. Auditory learners gain knowledge through listening and learning through steps, procedures, and sequence. They often struggle to remember verbal instructions because their minds wander when visual stimulation is present. Kinesthetic learners gain information through doing or walking through something. They may be laid back or nonchalant? (pp. 81-82). According to my results, I am a multi-sensory learner with a 6 for visual, a 5 for tactile/kinesthetic, and a 4 for auditory. I do best if I can not only hear and see what is being discussed, but put into action what is being taught. This was especially true in the lab setting when we were learning the nursing skills. It was easier for me to retain the information given if I was able to practice the skill after hearing how to perform it. I am not good at retaining lecture information especially if the information being presented is dry. There are times I need to review what I have read in order to fully grasp the information.
Online learning meets my learning style as I am able to review the assigned material without fear of missing information that I might miss in a lecture situation. If I need to, I can make notes on the material that I am having difficulty retaining. According to Thiele (2003), online students have been shown to be more independent and self-disciplined learners.
References:
Phillips, J. (2005). Strategies for active learning in online continuing education. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 36(2), 77-83.
Thiele, J. (2003). Learning patterns of online students. Journal of Nursing Education, 42(8), 364-366
4. McGillvray-Jones (2013) conveys that individual?s learning styles can influence what information they retain as well as how they translate it into practice. From the categories of visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic learning styles within the questionnaire provided by Thinkwell (2003), my dominant style was visual (10), following with tactile/kinesthetic (4), and finally auditory (1), subsequently this was not a surprise to me. With the difference in learning styles, it is imperative the educator encompasses a variety of learning approaches to address all styles (Nuzhat, Salem, Al Hamdan, & Ashour, 2013). Equally significant is one?s ability to understand their learning style so that effective learning strategies may be chosen (Bradshaw & Lowenstein, 2011). The majority of my professional education was provided through lectures only; which is appropriate for auditory learners but not so for visual learners. Further lectures encourage students to take a passive role in their education versus an active role (Romanelli, Bird, & Ryan, 2009). I recall in undergraduate classes reading the assignment before going to class and making notes based on what I read, recording the lectures and adding additional information to my notes, and then making a final copy of all notes but this time adding symbols and colors to help me in my studies for an exam. Fortunately this worked well for me but before I began this learning strategy, I attempted to highlight the pertinent information only in a text but this most often ended with the entire page being highlighted, thus it served as a poor learning technique for me. As technology continues to advance the use of a Smart board or a PowerPoint presentation would provide visual learners such as I, cues to the organization of the lecture as well as a visual representation. Other possible teaching techniques for the visual learner consist of the educator providing students with a copy of the speaker notes prior to the beginning of class, the use of graphs and pictures (Svinicki & McKeachie, 2011). As mentioned in our introduction, I teach girls ministry to first and second grade girls on Wednesday evenings. In attempts to reach as many children as I can, I allow the girls to use puppets to play the role of the characters while I read the lesson. I use wipe off boards for the girls to practice their memory verses, we shout the memory verse as loud as we can, and at the end of the evening we summarize what we learned and we make sure that everyone understands the concept of the lesson. Appreciating the unique needs and characteristics of individuals within a learning setting sets an education environment that will better enhance learning by all. While educators are challenged to use innovative teaching methods that recognize the needs of all students, variation in teaching approaches allows the needs of all students to be considered (Bradshaw & Lowenstein, 2011).
References
Bradshaw, M., & Lowenstein, A. (2011). Innovative teaching strategies in nursing and
related health professions (5th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
McGillvray-Jones, L. (2013). The learning partnership. Nursing Standard, 27(42), 64.
Nuzhat, A., Salem, RO., Al Hamdan, N., & Ashour, N. (2013). Gender differences in learning styles
and academic performance of medical students in Saudi Arabia. Medical Teacher, 35(1), 78-82.
doi:10.3109/0142159X.2013.765545
Romanelli, F., Bird, E., & Ryan, M. (2009). Learning styles: A review of theory, application, and
best practices. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 73(1), 9.
Svinicki, M., & McKeachie, W. (2011). McKeachie?s teaching tips (13th ed.).
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Thinkwell. (2003). What is my learning style?
Retrieved from http://www.2learn.org/learningstyles.html
