Learning About Your Nursing Classrooms

Looking at Learning

Do you learn by absorbing information like a sponge, testing your knowledge through activities, or a blend of both? For nursing students, learning doesn’t start in the hospital; it starts in the classroom. Nursing schools prepare students to pass the NCLEX-RN exam for licensure as a registered nurse and, consequently, classes focus on developing your critical thinking and test-taking skills. Every program is different, and knowing how your school teaches its classes will impact your learning and readiness to become a nurse.

A summary of a traditional lecture-based classroom and a flipped classroom. "Flipped Classroom Resources" by St. Louis University

The Lecture-Based Classroom

This is the most common teaching method where students simply sit and watch the professor talk for most of the class period, as the image summarizes (St. Louis University). Professors explain the material with minimal, if any, activities planned and expect students to have read the chapters beforehand. In this method, students are more responsible for their understanding of the material and must identify their own learning needs.

While this may work for highly independent and diligent students, it may not be ideal for those who seek engagement and participation to understand the content. Students are left to figure out how to apply the content on their own, which may be difficult for new nursing students while adapting to their stressful schedules and dense reading assignments. However, its familiarity leaves no surprises of what to expect and may be favorable as students and professors are used to its structure.

The Flipped Classroom

In a flipped classroom, students learn the new content online before each class, such as listening to a professor’s prerecorded lectures. When in class, students could then ask questions and collaborate with classmates in small groups to do activities. For example, creating concept maps of disease processes or role-playing clinical scenarios allows students to connect ideas and apply their new knowledge.

An example of a concept map that students can work on together.

Since students can learn at their own pace, relistening to lectures while doing other tasks allows them to be productive and time-efficient. In contrast, some students report that the pre-class homework is overwhelming and adds to their stress; however, a study suggests easing this by letting professors inform students of the flipped classroom instruction at the start of the course (Ward, et al.). Although some nursing students at Duke University weren’t convinced of the flipped classroom’s effectiveness at first, they see it as a “valuable learning tool” that helps them think on their own (Hart). Doing these activities enhance students’ critical thinking skills, which is essential for clinical decision-making that’s refined primarily through practice and experience.

For this to be effective, professors would also need to revise their lessons and find appropriate activities. However, not all professors have time to put adequate effort and attention into it, which can affect the quality of the content. For this reason, it may be helpful to find a syllabus of a nursing class from your school to determine exactly how the program teaches its courses, the activities used, and the homework assigned.

Your Nursing Classrooms

Neither method is easier than the other, but one may be more helpful depending on your learning preferences. Reflect on your previous classroom experiences, find a class syllabus, and determine your ideal class environment whether it’s lecture-based, a flipped classroom, or elements of both. The content you learn from a nursing program impacts what you’ll remember once you become a nurse and the critical thinking skills you’ve gained to make important clinical judgments.

Sources:

Hart, Dave. "The Flipped Classroom." Summer 2013 Duke Nursing, 12 Dec. 2013, nursing.duke.edu/news/flipped-classroom. Accessed 7 Nov. 2019.

St. Louis University. "Flipping the Classroom." Digital image. Flipped Classroom Resources, Feb. 2012, www.slu.edu/cttl/resources/flipped-classroom-resources.php. Accessed 7 Nov. 2019.

Ward, Maria, et al. "The Flip Side of Traditional Nursing Education: A Literature Review." Nurse Education in Practice, vol. 29, Mar. 2018, pp. 163-171, Elsevier ScienceDirect. doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2018.01.003. Accessed 7 Nov. 2019.