AN INVESTIGATION OF PERCEPTIONS AND TEACHING STRATEGIES IN NURSING EDUCATION CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENTS.
Contributors: University of Connecticut.
Published: 1994
Number of pages: 215
Subjects: Education, Curriculum and Instruction.; Health Sciences, Education.
Description: The purpose of this study was to determine nursing students' and faculty members' perceptions of classroom environments, and to ascertain perceptions of teaching strategies which promote the development of effective classroom environments. A quantitative design was used to determine perceptions of the classroom environment and a qualitative design was used to investigate teaching strategies.

Ten upper division baccalaureate nursing classes in six Connecticut schools comprised the sample. Ten nurse educators and 163 nursing students responded to the actual and preferred forms of the College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI) to assess perceptions of classroom environments.

The CUCEI was validated on this sample with acceptable rates of validation. Calculations of reliability were established at.91 for the overall score. The means comparing student actual and preferred and instructor actual and preferred for all classes revealed that both students and instructors preferred more emphasis on all scales than they perceived as actually present. The standard error of measurement was used to test the significance of the means. The means were not significant at the.05 level. A comparison of student actual and instructor actual suggests that instructors perceived a more favorable environment on all scales than did their students. The means between student actual and preferred of the individual classes showed significance in Student Cohesiveness (2 classes), Satisfaction (5 classes), and Task Orientation (2 classes).

Not all faculty members agreed that the seven scales of the CUCEI were important or the content their responsibility. This value affected classroom techniques and management and resulted in the students' lower perception on the scales, especially Student Cohesiveness and Innovation.

Data triangulation was used to establish those teaching strategies which enhance the classroom environment. The teaching strategies culled from interviews of faculty members and students and from classroom observations were summarized into three themes: Adult learning concepts including flexibility, expectations and the use of personal experiences; Interpersonal relationship skills; and Group process or experiences. Results showed that these three themes were consistent throughout several scales of the CUCEI.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-09, Section: A, page: 2693.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT, 1994.

School code: 0056.