| Nursing leaders and those in nursing organizations continue to call for reform in nursing education, a deep and pervasive reform that would promote a student-centered approach to learning rather the long-standing teacher-centered approach that currently exists. This current, teacher-centered approach is often referred to as conventional pedagogy. A teacher adopting this approach possesses unquestioned, autocratic classroom authority. Additionally, the teacher determines what constitutes knowledge, what knowledge is important, and attempts to transmit knowledge as if it were itself an entity. Characteristic of this approach is the use of conventional methods. These methods include the dissemination of information primarily through lecture and involve the evaluation of learning by examination using multiple-choice or related formats.;In response to this call for reform, nursing educators in the classroom were encouraged to adopt new and innovative pedagogies and teaching methods. The new pedagogies considered by this researcher included critical, feminist, postmodern, and phenomenological approaches. These alternative pedagogies shift the focus from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered approach with an emphasis on the context of learning and the learner's interpretation of the content.;While literature shows the adoption of alternative pedagogies and non-conventional teaching methods in courses such as leadership and community-related courses, fewer studies examine the adoption of these approaches in coursework involving medical-surgical nursing with a clinical component. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study was to develop a deeper understanding of the adoption of alternative pedagogies and the use of non-conventional teaching methods by faculty members teaching medical-surgical nursing content in the classroom for those courses with a clinical component.;Twelve faculty members were recruited from a three-county area in Central Illinois. These participants represented all three types of nursing education programs - diploma, associate degree, and baccalaureate education. Participants also taught courses in medical-surgical nursing with a clinical component such as medical-surgical nursing of the adult client, obstetric nursing (care of women related to childbirth), or pediatric nursing (care of children).;Data was collected by interview, classroom observation, and document analysis. Qualitative software was used to assist in line-by-line coding and analysis. Analysis was aided by the use of operational definitions of key terms and by the use of the Content Based Adoption Model.;In respect to pedagogy, findings revealed that participants held beliefs more aligned with a teacher-centered, content-driven approach to teaching and learning. While participants viewed themselves as facilitators of learning, a key feature of alternative pedagogies, they also expressed a strong desire to control the classroom and cover content using lecture. Additionally, participants perceived that students lacked self determination in their learning, a viewpoint more characteristic of conventional pedagogy. This lack of self determination was contributed to several factors including the complex nature of nursing education, a preoccupation with personal life events, immaturity, generational attributes, and a lack of curiosity or self-motivation. Consistent with this conventional perspective of teaching and learning, lecture was found to be the predominant teaching method used by these participants. Despite these findings, many participants demonstrated some degree of phenomenological pedagogy and non-conventional teaching methods. This was evidenced by the perceived value participants attached to the use of anecdotal narratives and the subsequent use of these narratives in the classroom and by the limited incorporation of non-conventional teaching methods. |
