Education is the foundation for every career, and when it comes to a career as important, incredible, valuable, and truthfully as complicated as nursing, thoughtful, prepared, adaptive teachers make all the difference in a student’s learning experience. My vision is to help students connect with their strengths, recognize resources, develop confidence in their clinical knowledge and skills, and utilize them to maximize their learning and performance.

My experience as an emergency room nurse, global learning opportunities in Uganda, Africa, as well as my education through the Master’s of Nursing program with the University of Washington Bothell have laid an academic and clinical knowledge that drives my passion and desire to teach in academic classrooms and in clinicals, creating an environment where students are able to feel safe in their journey of learning, can critically think through tough concepts with support and guidance, feel included, valued, acknowledged and respected, excited about learning, and overall develop a preparedness for the world of nursing.

My teaching philosophy sets out to incorporate the following core values:

1. Provide students a safe, engaging environment to foster educational growth, critical thinking skills, and instruction that is catered to push the boundaries of their thinking.
2. Practice trauma-informed pedagogy to help students maximize their educational experience.
3. Work with students individually and collaboratively to understand providing thorough, culturally sensitive, safe care to patients.
4.  Incorporate the most recent research, technology, and resources into learning.

The principles of teaching and education that underlie my vision are described by Diane Billings, Judith Halstead, and Lori Candela in four steps: assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation. Assessment has three components: curricular attributes, faculty attributes, and student attributes, tying the educational content, teacher, and student together under a goal to meet learning objectives.

Planning involves development of instructional plans to help teachers meet their teaching responsibilities, and includes but is not limited to: selecting and organizing appropriate and essential concepts in logical and meaningful order, acknowledging relationships between information, selecting appropriate teaching strategies and learning activities, and developing all the lesson plans prior to courses beginning to ensure necessary content is appropriately covered as well as create the most beneficial teaching plan for content (Billings et al, 2012). Modeling preparation is of utmost importance to ensuring students understand how vitally important this aspect is to learning, while simultaneously modeling grace and understanding for each individual’s life circumstances and needs.

Implementation requires flexibility by faculty in order to modify instructional strategies as needed depending on student needs during pre-designed lesson plans. Being aware of verbal and non-verbal student cues that indicate understanding or lack thereof is important in this step, as additional or altered explanation may be necessary (Billings et al, 2012).

Evaluation is subdivided into the two components of formative and summative. Formative evaluation helps determine progress of a student throughout the duration of a course but is generally used during a class session to help teachers assess present comprehension of concepts, pinpoint difficulties meeting learning outcomes, and provide additional resources or interventions to aid learning. Summative evaluation is implemented at the end of a course to assess how well students have met learning outcomes (Billings et al, 2012).

Cognitive Learning Theories as well as Behavioral Learning Theories will drive my vision to create my desired environment for students’ learning. Cognitive learning theories will help provide the inclusion I seek by giving students a more active role in their learning, whereas behavioral learning theories will help create the structure necessary to meet class learning objectives, keep learning orderly and class as timely as possible.

Behaviorism is the concept of learning being an observable change in behavior or performance from eternal factors that create change. Cognitivism is the concept of learning as a result of a new experience creating an unobservable change in mental processes, and as a result behavior or performance changes may or may not be observed (Billings et al, 2012).

Roles and responsibilities of the educator include creating a structured learning environment, designing an active, constructive, and goal directed environment appropriate for the students’ cognitive abilities, modeling and encouraging use of appropriate teaching strategies, understanding varying learning styles and how students process information, and creating time outside of class to be available for student’s needs (Billings et al, 2012). In addition to this, Jurgen Abela describes how adult learners frequently require motivation for success, which is also a role of the educator (Abela, 2009).

Roles and responsibilities of the student include following faculty’s directions, planning time to practice achieving desired behaviors communicated by faculty, demonstrate control of their own learning, actively engage in the instruction and learning process, seek clarification, be willing to interact with classmates who’s backgrounds or views may be different, maintain an openness and receptive attitude, and understand that progression through coursework will bring increasingly complex intellectual demands (Billings et al, 2012).

My teaching and evaluation plan will be linked by the fundamentals of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Keeping the educational level of students in mind, as well as where we are in the learning process, moving up the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy with intentional questioning and touching on the multidimensional aspects of dynamic concepts (Iowa State University, 2022).

The environment in which learning takes place can be just as important as the content being covered. The climate should take into consideration student needs, comfort, and safety, as well as allow time for students to make meaning of the lessons, ask questions, and provide a space where the student’s cognitive, intellectual, and ethical development is considered. Lastly, creating a learning climate where student success is acknowledged with positive or constructive, respectful feedback and positive reinforcement is helpful to solidify changes in learning behavior (Billings et al, 2012).

Finally, I seek to create a positive lasting impact on nursing education by sharing my experiences, learning alongside, and working with the next generation of nurses to lay the foundation of knowledge necessary to provide knowledgeable, safe, compassionate, excellent care.

References

Abela, Jurgen. Adult Learning Theories and Medical Education, Mar. 2009,
    canvas.uw.edu/courses/1647617/pages/week-2-required-readings?module_item_id=18084078.

Billings, Diane M, et al. Teaching in Nursing: A Guide for Faculty, 4th ed., ELSEVIER –
    HEALTH SCIENCE, St. Louis, MO, 2012, pp. 202–237.

Iowa State University, Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. Center for Excellence in Learning and
    Teaching iCal, 2022,
    http://www.celt.iastate.edu/instructional-strategies/effective-teaching-
    practices/revised-blooms-taxonomy/.