The Carrot or the Stick: Do Your Words and Actions Convey an Affirmative or Punitive Approach to Teaching and Learning?

Purpose:

Faculty and students often come to learning situations with preconceived notions of how each should respond in classroom and clinical settings.  This mismatch of perceptions may lead to unrealistic expectations and affect  faculty-student interactiions. This session will explore the words and actions of nursing faculty and how they may be perceived as generating an affirmative or a punitive approach to teaching and learning, thus shaping the learning milieu. 

Methods:

The authors used descriptive analysis to overview characteristics of faculty and student perceptions of language intent, as those perceptions were reported in literature and noted in everyday practice.

Results:

A range of factors can influence teaching/learning situations.  Review of literature and day-to-day experience suggested that students' lack of knowledge or preparation; faculty members' teaching goals, values and ideals; the ability of both students and faculty to balance learning with summative and formative assessment; and prior experiences including  bullying experiences influence the quality of faculty and student interactions. Factors external to the curriculum itself, such as NCLEX pass rates, student recruitment and retention rates, academic citizenship, scholarship, and professional development shape the mliieu within which their interactions occur and foster the quality of future interactions.   

Conclusion:

Dialogue about 'the ways we do things' in our environments will improve the student faculty relationship and produce a more positive teaching-learning environment.