Using Socratic Seminars to Teach Leadership and Management Principles to BSN Students

Rowberg, Margaret J.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011: 4:25 PM

Margaret J. Rowberg, DNP, APN
School of Nursing, California State University, Chico, CA

Learning Objective 1: gain an understanding on how to create a more interactive learning environment to increase critical thinking and more thoroughly engage students in learning nursing content.

Learning Objective 2: develop and utilize a coordinated teaching approach using the Socratic Method as the foundation for learning.

In a time when nurses play a significant role in maintaining and promoting the health of people globally, it is vital that they develop excellent leadership skills. Unfortunately many baccalaureate nursing students do not visualize themselves in a leadership role. Student nurses tend to discount content covered in leadership courses as irrelevant and often admit they only review key concepts and rarely read the assigned textbooks. Using traditional lecture format also discourages learners from becoming excited about this critical content. Clearly then, a need exists to create a more self-directed learning environment which develops problem solving and critical thinking skills required in the health care environment and to more thoroughly engage students in learning leadership/management content.

After an extensive review of the literature, a new teaching process was established for a leadership/management course using the Socratic Method as the foundation for learning. This method promotes thoughtful discussions through the use of open-ended questions, requiring students to think and analyze. Using debate and discussion, students became more involved and challenged each other’s views. Additionally, learning circles, case studies and clicker technology were instituted. This coordinated teaching approach created an enhanced learning environment while making the class more enjoyable.

This teaching method has now been used with approximately 115 senior nursing students over three semesters. These students completed an extensive summative evaluation, specifically developed to assess the success of this learning pedagogy. Outcomes have been overwhelmingly positive. Students stated they did significantly more critical thinking using this comprehensive format compared to the traditional lecture and learned the material better than in other courses. This presentation will discuss how to reorganize nursing courses to utilize this method of teaching, describe the strengths and challenges of implementing this teaching approach, and review outcome data associated with the change.

See more of: Innovative Educational Strategies for Student Nurses
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