Teaching Strategies Utilized by the Clinical Instructors as Perceived by Nursing Students

The study pursued the following objectives: 1) to determine the different teaching strategies utilized by the clinical instructors in the College of Nursing; 2) to identify problems and difficulties related to teaching strategies; and 3) to describe solutions or suggestions for the improvement of the clinical teaching strategies. This particular study used the descriptive research design using the qualitative research technique. According to Adanza (2002), the descriptive research design is a technique in analyzing the data, which explains the status of events, phenomenon, and situation, which is existing and observable in the present condition. Hence, this group of researchers deems descriptive design is apt for the study since this describes the way students assess their teachers’ strategies. The respondents comprised 50 nursing students who were selected through the purposive sampling technique. The following criteria were used: a) they are NCM501205 students at the time of the study; and b) they had passed the RLE for the past semester. The interview schedule was focused on the teaching strategies of the RLE instructors, namely: traditional, critical thinking, activity based, and clinical teaching strategies. The data were organized, presented, and analyzed through the weighted mean and ranked frequencies. The most dominant teaching strategies utilized by the RLE instructors are the clinical and activity-based teaching strategies. These are very good situations as related learning experiences are enhanced if the clinical teaching strategies are utilized dominantly. Activity based teaching strategies are appropriate as a strategy used in RLE because the students’ participation is fully maximized. Meanwhile, the strategies that enhance critical thinking and traditional teaching strategies are only done sometimes. The implications of these are that there is a need for further enhancement of the strategies that enhance critical thinking. On the other hand, the lowest extent on the use of traditional teaching strategies implies that the RLE instructors prefer the innovative teaching strategies.

 

Keywords: Teaching Strategies, Related Learning Experience (RLE), Clinical Instructors