Description/Overview: Building a science of nursing education requires that nurse researchers conduct pedagogical outcome studies to provide empirical evidence for best teaching practices. The focus of this symposium is three pedagogical studies that explored the impact of active learning strategies in the classroom setting on learning and knowledge retention of generic baccalaureate students. Additionally, the challenges of conducting pedagogical research are discussed. As the number of nursing students increases, the ability to actively engage all students in large lecture style classrooms is challenging and increasingly more difficult. Active strategies and discussion are often limited by the physical structure of the room, inability to hear student responses, and the dominance of responses from a small percentage of students. In the following three studies, the faculty transformed the learning environment using technology to change the current paradigm of passive listening to interactive classroom instruction. Findings from the studies did not support knowledge acquisition; however, students generally perceived the addition of active teaching strategies as positive. It is essential that nurse educators examine their teaching practices and explore best teaching and learning practices using active learning methods in the education of future nurses.

Learner Objective #1: discuss the efficacy of interactive teaching/learning strategies in the classroom setting.

Learner Objective #2: examine the challenges of conducting pedagogical research for the nurse educator.