Instructional perspectives of nurse educators in distance education classrooms (Missouri)

The purpose of this study was to contribute to knowledge regarding instructional perspectives of nurse faculty engaged in teaching via distance education formats. This study of 35 nurse educators in the University of Missouri system was designed to identify differences of respondents rating the seven factors of the Instructional Perspectives Inventory (IPI), which include: teacher empathy with learners; teacher trust of learners; planning and delivery of instruction; accommodating learner uniqueness; teacher insensitivity towards learners; learner-centered learning processes; and teacher-centered learning processes (Henschke,1989). Additionally, this study identified differences between the seven factors and specific demographic data (age, number of years teaching nursing, number of semesters teaching via distance education, formal exposure to adult education concepts and highest degree earned).; Analysis of variance was performed to determine significant differences in means when comparing each dependent variable to each independent variable. In areas where significant differences in means were found, the Tukey's test was applied to detect which sub-group is responsible for the difference (Cohen, 1987).; The two areas of statistically significant findings from the analysis of the data were regarding the factor “teacher trust of learners.” Respondents with doctorates outside of nursing scored significantly higher on teacher trust of learners than those with doctorates in nursing. Also, respondents with a Master of Science degree in nursing scored significantly higher on teacher trust of learners than those with doctorates in nursing.; Given the primacy of teacher trust of learners in the education of adult learners (Henschke,1998), the statistically significant findings regarding teacher trust of learners and highest degree earned illuminate the need for additional study of doctoral programs in nursing, including the discipline of nursing's approach to preparing nurse-educators.; The largest number of faculty in this study were in the 50–59 year-old age category. The faculty in the 30–39 year-old age category was the smallest in number. These findings are in line with descriptions in the literature regarding the fact that nursing faculty are getting older and approaching retirement (Zungolo, 2002).