Poster Presentation
Thursday, July 12, 2007
9:30 AM - 10:15 AM
Thursday, July 12, 2007
3:15 PM - 4:00 PM
Teachers' views of teaching critical thinking in the 2-year RN to BSN program in Taiwan: A focus group study
Su-Fen Cheng, PhD, RN1, Sheila Sheu, PhD2, Pei-Rong Chang, RN, MS3, Hsiu-Fang Hsieh2, Man-Hua Shen, MSN2, and Fu-Ju Tsai, MSN2. (1) College of Nursing, Fooyin University, Kaohsiung County, Taiwan, (2) Department of Nursing, Fooyin University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, (3) Department of Nursing, Foo-Yin University, Kaohsiung Hsien, Taiwan
| Learning Objective #1: The learners will be able to understand how critical thinking being applied in one nursing course in a 2-year BSN program in Taiwan. |
| Learning Objective #2: The learners will be able to learn the strength, weakeness and difficulties in teaching critical thinking in a 2-year RN to BSN program in Taiwan. |
Objective
The purpose of this study were (1) to identify the definition of critical thinking, and (2) to explore the strength and difficulties in applying critical thinking in the Analysis of Clinical Case course; as well as (3) to understand factors influencing the teaching and learning of critical thinking in the analysis of Clinical Case course..
Methods
A descriptive qualitative research design with focus group interview was used to understand how nursing faculty describe and perceive the value of teaching critical thinking. Three focus groups with 20 faculty members were asked to participate in this study. Each group contains 5 to 8 faculty members. A semi-structure interview guideline was developed, including the definition of critical thinking, strengths and weakness of teaching critical thinking in the class, the difficulties of applying critical thinking as well as how to apply critical thinking in the classroom teaching. Thematic analysis of transcripts was undertaken.
Results & Discussions
The results revealed that faculty value the essential demand for teaching critical thinking in the 2-year RN to BSN program, they believe learning/teaching critical thinking can help student “doing the things right, doing the right thing and make accurate decision”. Asking questions is the most frequently strategy used by faculty. Lack of clear guideline in teaching critical thinking was one of the major difficulties that faculties identified in their teaching. Couple factors influencing teaching critical thinking in nursing included students’ professional knowledge and working experiences, students’ literacy and readability, as well as faculty’s own knowledge regarding critical thinking. The results strongly provide the valuable information to develop teaching critical thinking course in the 2-year RN to BSN program.