Transforming Education through Reflection: Pedagogies in Action

The challenges and opportunities in developing nurses for practice have never been greater. New quality and safety science, advances in knowledge and technology, increased patient involvement, market driven health care, and altered care settings where nurses practice mandate transformation in how we educate and prepare students for practice.  A new vision for transforming education that prepares nurses with advanced knowledge, judgment, skills and ethical standards calls for teaching approaches that are strong in situated and experiential learning ( Benner et al, 2010). Educational strategies that engage students in deeper understanding of classroom material by helping them to integrate clinical learning and experience prepares them  to think and act in ever changing care situations  and delivery systems (Sherwood & Horton-Deutsch, 2012).  This symposium will present three pedagogical strategies that engage learners in critical reflection that moves students beyond acquiring new knowledge to deeper learning that questions assumptions, values and perspectives that undergird cultures of quality and safety.  Critical reflection used in this systematic way helps students “make sense of experience” and can be an avenue to improve practice by questioning actions and reassessing what is known.  The first presentation will introduce Tanner’s (2006) Clinical Judgment Model in the context of the QSEN competencies to demonstrate how students apply reflection to construct, deconstruct and reconstruct their experiences. Next, narrative pedagogy , a research-based, phenomenological pedagogy will be explored where faculty and students engage in co-creating experiences in which teacher and students think together and seek new ways to understand their experiences. Finally, participants will be introduced to visual thinking strategies, an aesthetic approach, to teach students to critically think on art, nature and culture as a means to develop critical thinking skills, engage in observations and meaning making, and encourage students to socially deconstruct knowledge through thoughtful discussion of art.