Teaching & Learning Blog

More than 3.5 million nurses around the country are currently providing a variety of essential healthcare services. In doing so, they are spending more hours with patients than any other profession in the industry, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), which is why it’s essential for nurses to have a solid foundation of knowledge in the field and to develop a strong sense of confidence that can sustain them throughout their careers.

Nursing is the linchpin of the American healthcare system, but experts predict that the system could break. The Baby Boomer generation is aging and requiring more care; nursing programs are experiencing faculty shortages that restrict the number of students they can admit each year; and nurses are being pulled in so many different directions that they are burning out and leaving the profession at historic rates, according to a report from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN).

How can nurse educators provide a foundational learning experience that helps nurses thrive?

In addition to incorporating concept-based learning into the curriculum to prepare nursing students for challenging clinical environments, another important way to facilitate critical growth in the nursing profession is to support the role that student-teacher relationships play in promoting positive learning outcomes and strong retention rates.

Nurse educators play a vital role

Regardless of the level of difficulty or the subject matter being covered, the truly effective teachers are the ones who can connect with their students in meaningful ways. The student-teacher relationship is especially influential in nursing education programs, where the information is complex and mistakes can cost lives.

Nurse educator Tammy Vant Hul, Riverside City College, PhD, MSN, RN, ACNP, CNE, says that building a sense of trust between instructor and student is crucial. “I think helping students work through the idea that the only thing that they can\, put their money on is that their patients are going to change from the time they walk in there in the morning. The environment that they work in will change almost weekly.”

The student-teacher connection in nursing education is described as “a place of possibility” by Mary Gillespie, a professor of critical care nursing at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. “The qualities inherent in the essence of connection — knowing, trust, respect, and mutuality — create a transformative space in which students are affirmed, gain insight into their potential, and grow toward fulfilling personal and professional capacities,” she writes in the Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Other research has concluded that nurse educators who provide a supportive teaching context can dramatically alter a nursing student’s approach to learning, inspiring them to engage more deeply with the material and become active, enthusiastic learners. A positive learning environment has also been shown to bolster resilience in nursing students, a key factor in achieving academic success and professional longevity in the field.

Vant Hul and her colleagues, for example, don’t conduct “high stakes testing” because doing so can damage a student’s sense of psychological safety and interfere with the learning process. When one of Vant Hul’s students makes a mistake during a simulation exercise, she helps them learn from it by asking questions that encourage them to reflect on their performance, such as: What just happened? How could you have handled this situation better? and What will you do differently next time?

Cultivating a positive relationship while maintaining professional boundaries and holding students accountable for their learning is not a straightforward task. Gillespie emphasizes that nurse educators need to be trained in how to help students grow their own relational competencies, as well as how to keep the “educator-in-relationship” role in mind when assessing students.

The importance of promoting dignity

In healthcare, the concept of dignity — a human being’s intrinsic worth and fundamental right to be treated with respect — is often discussed in relation to the patient who is being cared for, not the nurse who is caring for that patient. However, when it comes to training and retaining nurses, it is the dignity of these essential healthcare providers that needs to be of paramount importance to educators.

“It is a goal in nursing education to promote students' dignity and facilitate this core value,” write Tone Stikholmen, Dagfinn Nåden, and Herdis Alvsvåg in a study published in Nursing Ethics. The study found a meaningful link between the student-teacher relationship and a nursing students’ experience with dignity. When an educator was affirming, empathetic, and accepting, students were more likely to have confidence in their abilities and to be more present in patient situations.

In the student interviews conducted by Stikholmen and his colleagues, the following recommendations for nurse educators emerged:

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At Pearson, we’re always listening to faculty and students and, recently, we kept hearing one refrain over and over — classroom engagement was at an all-time low. Fortunately, we knew just what to do. In fact, we had a solution ready.

For years, Pearson’s Learning Catalytics interactive student response tool has been helping instructors and students connect in meaningful ways. As soon as we knew classroom engagement was lagging, we knew we needed to host a Learning Catalytics Summit to help more instructors learn how to use — and make the most of — this incredible tool.

On August 1, we hosted the first-ever Learning Catalytics Summit to great acclaim. Attendees participated in four different webinar sessions hosted by Learning Catalytics experts. Each session focused on a specific advantage of Learning Catalytics, but they all spoke to the ways the student response tool can help instructors see learning as it happens.

The overall message: Learning Catalytics is a powerful student response and assessment tool. As session-leader Aaron Warnock said, “Learning Catalytics — and I cannot exaggerate — revolutionized my classroom.” Brad Mehrtens concurred in his session, adding, “Learning Catalytics makes a huge difference in student engagement at any scale.”

How Does Learning Catalytics Work?

Designed to work on laptops and all common smart devices, Learning Catalytics gives instructors a way to connect directly to students and know when everyone is following a lesson and when some are falling behind. This real-time assessment allows instructors to adjust their teaching in-the-moment and address student confusion before it becomes a problem.

Learning Catalytics empowers instructors to:

• Engage students with 18 question types that include graphing, drawing, multiple choice selections, open-ended dialogues, and more
• Identify misconceptions and monitor responses to find out where students are struggling
• Facilitate peer-to-peer learning with automatic grouping of students so that every group has a member who understands the material

These features are available whether the class is in-person or online, making Learning Catalytics useful in every teaching environment. As Brad Mehrtens said about his experience using Learning Catalytics with even difficult-to-connect-with classrooms, “[The students] were there, they were engaged. [Learning Catalytics] works… It’s the only thing that works.”

What Did the Learning Catalytics Summit Cover?

The summit’s four unique sessions provided a wealth of information on how Learning Catalytics works and how instructors can use it in all kinds of classroom settings and situations. An hour-long each, the sessions included:

“Unleashing the Power of Learning Catalytics in a Hybrid Environment” with Aaron Warnock

Aaron Warnock’s session focused primarily on the way Learning Catalytics’ question-and-answer function helps instructors connect with students and students learn better in hybrid environments. Aaron showed audiences how students can answer questions by drawing graphs, clicking on different regions of an image, highlighting relevant information, evaluating complex problems, or simply filling in a multiple choice answer.

Aaron noted that the different question types give instructors a lot of flexibility in the ways they monitor student learning. Plus, the questions make it easier to get students to answer without them feeling uncomfortable, because everyone participates and no one feels put on the spot.

“When I saw Learning Catalytics for the first time, and the eighteen different question types that are available, I was instantly sold,” Aaron said. “It creates a fantastic, engaging learning environment for students.”

“Transforming Large-Classroom Activities with Learning Catalytics” with Brad Mehrtens

Being a professor who routinely teaches classes as large as 600 students, Brad Mehrtens understands the challenges of connecting with students. In his session, he spoke to how Learning Catalytics helps him keep students engaged in even the largest lecture halls.

After regularly watching class attendance dwindle — particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic — he started using Learning Catalytics. He immediately had a much better sense of how well his students were learning and, to his delight, attendance evened out.

“I was as deflated by the pandemic as anyone was, and Learning Catalytics has made me excited about teaching again,” Brad says. “And I don’t say that lightly. It has completely recharged my battery and made it fun to be back in the classroom”

“Connecting with Learning Catalytics for Success Throughout Your Course” with Pamela Sandstrom

A number of years ago, Pamela Sandstrom was using other types of student response tools — but that all changed. “Once I switched [to Learning Catalytics], I’ve never even thought about using any other instant response system because of how much [Learning Catalytics] can do,” she said in her summit session.

Centered on the ways Learning Catalytics can positively impact a course at multiple moments and in numerous ways, Pamela’s talk discussed how useful the real-time data on student learning is to her instruction.

“Learning Catalytics provides formative assessment,” she said. “But to me that means that I don’t have to wait till the test, or even till the end of the lecture — [I can see] how they’re doing in the class real time”

“The Tips and Tricks You Need to Know About Learning Catalytics” with Terry Austin

During his session, Terry Austin shared his screen to demonstrate exactly how Learning Catalytics works and all the ways he can customize it for the needs of a specific class. As an instructor who has been using Learning Catalytics for a decade, he had a lot of great tips and tricks, ranging from linking Learning Catalytics to a Pearson Mastering class to using it to improve seat maps to incorporating it into classroom presentations.

“Learning Catalytics is clever,” Terry said, noting how much the tool is capable of doing. As attendees to his session and the summit as a whole learned, he was right. Learning Catalytics can empower instructors to assess student learning in-the-moment, improve student engagement, and make classroom time much more successful.

As Terry noted, there’s a good reason he’s been using Learning Catalytics for a decade.

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Inclusive Assessing: Are All Students Able to Demonstrate What They Know?

Inclusive teaching is at the forefront of many discussions among educators in public schools as well as higher educational institutions. And while these discussions can be challenging in some arenas, I believe that teachers would agree their highest achievement is their students’ learning, mastering the course content and applying their new knowledge to their future goals. Success as a teacher equals the highest percentage of students possible demonstrating their course competency throughout the course in formative assessments and at the end of the term with summative assessments of their mastery.

However, often overlooked in discussions of DE&I are ideas about equitable assessment types. For me, the question is: Am I offering assessments that truly give opportunities for my diverse group of students to demonstrate what they know or have learned? Or am I just relying on my older methods of testing that leave some of my students without a way to show me they really know the material? Am I just asking the wrong questions, or asking them in a way that is confusing or challenging to some groups of students?

I have become aware that there is a huge gap between asking my students to parrot back the course content on a multiple-choice test and truly assessing their mastery of that content. Can they apply that content? Are they able to reason with this new information at the highest level of learning? Have I given them the opportunity to reach the peak of Bloom’s Taxonomy? 

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Do you know what your go-to learning styles are?  Understanding and applying different learning styles to your studying can transform the way your brain processes information. In turn, this can help you perform better on exams. Training your brain to take advantage of different styles of learning can help you retain information in new, creative ways.  

When it comes to learning styles, just remember VARK

Acronyms always help me remember things, so here is an acronym to help you remember the different learning styles: VARK. It stands for visual, auditory, read/write, and kinesthetic/tactile. Let’s look at what each style has to offer with regard to study strategies.

Visual input engages sight and brings attention to the eyes. This is when you’re more encouraged through visual imagery rather than word-based information.

1. Drawing pictures, diagrams, or graphs in notes
2. Color code notes with bright colors
3. Come up with funny mnemonics or acronyms 
4. Visualize notes during test-taking

Auditory input engages hearing and brings attention to the ears. This includes the use of sounds.

1. Read notes aloud
2. Teach and explain steps to a friend
3. Join a study group
4. Listen to your favorite music   

Read/write input is word or text-based learning. This is for students who prefer to pair reading and writing together.  

1. Prepare by reading the textbook before class
2. Write organized notes
3. Make flashcards 
4. Annotate and go over notes   

Kinesthetic/tactile input engages touch and movement. This learning style is for those who enjoy activity and are connected with the sense of touch.  

1. Incorporating models or figures 
2. Having a stress ball or sensory toy on hand
3. Move around during your time studying 
4. Stand and write on a board

Here’s what happened when I explored other learning styles

The learning style that comes most naturally to me is reading and writing. I like to take notes and read information multiple times. This helps my brain process the information in a way that will be easy for me to remember.  

While I am comfortable with that learning style, I also wanted to seek out different methods to engage other parts of my brain. I found that kinesthetic/tactile learning paired well with my previous style because it allowed me to move around and use my sense of touch. Simply walking around and writing on a whiteboard helped me visualize the information on a grander scale.  

In addition to those two learning styles, I also used visual inputs. Drawing diagrams on the whiteboard and using mnemonics or acronyms was very effective when it came to recalling information for my exams. Being able to clearly picture the visuals I wrote on the whiteboard engaged another part of my brain that I wouldn’t have accessed if I had only stuck with my go-to learning style. Overall, I discovered that involving different senses  can make studying easier.  

Try out these different learning styles and see how your studying habits transform! By changing how the brain processes information, you might find that you have an easier time studying, earn better grades, and retain knowledge more effectively.

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They’re BAAAAAAAAACK!

We survived teaching through the COVID-19 pandemic, teaching in the early days post-pandemic, and this year we thought we would be returning to some new normal in our classrooms.

But wait, there are new (and not so new) mine fields I’m expected to navigate?!

• ChatGPT??
• Political climates influencing what and how we teach??
• Continuing updates to accessibility??
• Commitments to inclusive teaching??

I feel a weariness creeping in as I struggle to stay enthusiastic about this new school year. So, I sought solace from like-minded educators and sources to help renew my excitement and confidence about stepping into the limelight with a whole new, unknown group of students.

I found this quote from a fellow teacher.

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No matter what your field of study, you probably remember the excitement of the 2017 total solar eclipse, which was the first in the US in nearly four decades. Tens of millions of people traveled to the path of totality, and the rest of the country saw a partial solar eclipse. Now we are approaching an even more exciting, back-to-back pair of US eclipses (shown on the map above):  

• Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023: The “warm-up” event: An annular solar eclipse, in which the Moon will not quite fully block the Sun (so that the Moon will be surrounded by a ring, or annulus, of sunlight).
• Monday, April 8, 2024: The big event: A total solar eclipse following a path from Mexico up through Texas and toward the northeast. More than 30 million people live within the path of totality, and nearly half the U.S. population resides within a about a 5-hour drive of the path. 

Both eclipses will provide a great opportunity for educators everywhere — and in all disciplines — to take advantage of the excitement to promote education and outreach. The “all disciplines” comes about because eclipses are truly interdisciplinary events. For example, besides the obvious connection to astronomy, eclipses involve mathematics and statistics (in modeling how they occur and doing the necessary calculations to predict and understand them), social sciences and history (in considering the many impacts that eclipses have had on human civilization), the arts (prose, poetry, music, painting), and much more.   

This means that it is time to start planning for how you will take advantage of this great opportunity. For those of you teaching at the college level, consider taking the following four steps:

1. Be sure you know where you are located relative to the eclipse paths. You can do this using the free app “Totality by Big Kid Science”, which you can download from the iOS or Android app stores. Based on your location, decide whether you will plan to stay put or travel to the eclipse paths.
2. Also use the app to find the local time for each of the eclipses, and critically important: Because the total eclipse is on a Monday (April 8, 2024), ask your college to ensure that all students, faculty, and employees can be outside throughout the local eclipse. (The annular eclipse on 10/14/23 is a Saturday, so it should pose less of an issue.)
3. Plan campus events for the eclipses. Most people find it more fun to watch the eclipse as part of a large group, plus this means you can have speakers to help explain what is happening (and how to watch safely) and to make interdisciplinary connections. You should also have your astronomy department (or anyone else with the necessary equipment) set up telescopes with solar filters for solar viewing.  
   Note: It is very important to emphasize safe viewing of the eclipse; it will be very helpful if your campus can provide eclipse glasses for the event, but be sure you get the glasses only from a vendor that has been approved by the American Astronomical Society (see the “approved vendor list”).
4. Look for outreach opportunities to ensure that the educational potential of the eclipses will be realized throughout your local community. For example, you might create a temporary “eclipse outreach club” that will give college students an opportunity to share their understanding and enthusiasm with local schools.

Want to learn more? If you are teaching astronomy, be sure to see our updated section on eclipses in Chapter 2 of the new, 10th edition of The Cosmic Perspective.

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Mastering Microbiology is the online Learning Management System that accompanies the textbook Microbiology: An Introduction. Mastering Microbiology is packed full of instructor friendly resources that aid in student learning and understanding. These resources give students 24/7 access to learning opportunities, allowing them to take ownership of their learning. The Mastering Microbiology resources range from providing students with important background knowledge, to adaptive study tools, to clinical based applications of Microbiology. The resources in Mastering Microbiology are pedagogically focused to provide clear explanations of complex concepts and to engage learners in the material by providing practical applications of microbiology concepts.

The Mastering Microbiology resources available for Microbiology: An Introduction include:

In The Clinic Videos: These videos bring to life the scenarios of the “In the Clinic” features that open every chapter. The videos introduce a microbial disease and ask questions linking microbiology concepts to disease pathology. This helps students transfer their knowledge of microbiology to clinically relevant settings.

Pedagogy – The “In the Clinic” Videos are designed to take concepts found in the disease chapters towards the end of the book and move them forward in the class, introducing disease pathology in concert with the microbiology that explains the how and why behind the pathology. This connection between microbiology and disease pathology occurs in a clinical setting highlighting how microbiology understanding can be transferred to patient care. These real-world examples engage learners and help students develop critical thinking skills.

How to Assign – These assignments can be assigned after class to allow students to apply the new information they have learned. These assignments can also be used in class to provide active learning and/or peer to peer learning in class. An instructor can show the first part of the video and ask students to hypothesize answers to the questions. This will provide a scaffold for student learning while the instructor lectures over the content. Later on, the class can come back to the videos to see content application and spark classroom discussion. In an online setting, instructors can assign these after chapter reading assignments to apply and assess knowledge students have gained.

MicroBoosters: MicroBoosters are a suite of brief video tutorials that cover key background concepts students may need to review or relearn prior to diving into more complex microbiology content.

Pedagogy – Complex microbiology concepts often build from prior knowledge based in biology and chemistry. In a one semester Microbiology class, instructors are pressed for time to cover all of the microbiology concepts in detail, and they may not have time to cover all the background material as well. The MicroBooster video tutorials allow students to learn and review key background knowledge, ensuring they come to class prepared.

How to Assign – MicroBoosters can be assigned before class to give students the background knowledge they need for lecture topics. Assigning Microboosters before class allows the instructor to review student grades prior to class to determine if students know the needed background information for the lecture. In an online setting, Microboosters can be used either as a warmup before chapter content is assigned, or at the start of the class in a background introduction module.

Interactive Microbiology: Interactive Microbiology is a dynamic suite of interactive tutorials and animations that teach key microbiology concepts. Students actively engage with each topic and learn by manipulating variables, predicting outcomes, and answering assessment questions.

Pedagogy – Interactive Microbiology takes a scaffolding approach to presenting complex materials. This concept allows different microbiology concepts to build on one another, helping students to understand the answers to questions and mimic the type of thought process that would occur clinically. Each module starts with a case study to provide students with a real-world hook that increases interest and engagement. The activities use state-of-the-art animations to bring cell biology concepts to life and ask questions that allow students to own their learning and connect microbiology concepts to clinical applications. Interactive Microbiology helps to bridge the core concepts of microbiology like morphology, genetics, and metabolism, with the more advanced concepts of microbiology like pathology, immunology, and pharmacology in a realistic manner that makes the learning genuine.

How to Assign – Interactive Microbiology assignments can be assigned as post-lecture material, reinforcing and providing application for lecture content. These assignments can also be used to introduce upcoming lecture concepts, helping students connect basic knowledge with more advanced concepts.

Micro Lab Explorations: Micro Lab Explorations are branching style lab activities that use a Choose Your Own AdventureTM approach to teach lab techniques and concepts. These decision-tree style lab exercises present a clinically based scenario that walks students through the process of using microbiology lab knowledge to solve clinical problems.

Pedagogy – Decision-tree style lab exercises are designed to increase student ownership and interactivity in online environments, by allowing students to engage in the narrative of the lesson. Students are not just passively watching content, but rather directing the path of the content, answering questions, and learning from their mistakes in a low-stakes environment. These activities also help students develop critical thinking skills by linking microbiology concepts and lab techniques with clinical applications.

How to Assign – Because Micro Lab Explorations contain videos on how to perform certain lab techniques, they are perfect to assign as pre-labs prior to in-person or virtual labs. Students will not only see the proper way to perform lab techniques but will also learn about the concepts behind the lab and how these lab techniques are used to aid in clinical diagnosis.

Interactive Labs: Interactive Labs for Microbiology is a suite of online microbiology lab simulations. These interactive labs allow students to perform lab techniques virtually, while receiving guided feedback. 

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As college students and their instructors return to school, it’s important to remember that fostering a growth mindset in students can significantly impact their learning experience and academic success. A growth mindset emphasizes the belief that intelligence and abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. By cultivating this mindset from the beginning of the semester, instructors can empower students to embrace challenges, persevere through obstacles, and maximize their potential. Here are some valuable strategies college instructors can use to start the semester off right by nurturing a growth mindset in their students.

1: Encourage a Positive Classroom Culture

Create an environment that celebrates effort, resilience, and the value of mistakes. Encourage students to view challenges as opportunities for growth rather than setbacks. Emphasize that mistakes are an essential part of the learning process and provide specific feedback that focuses on improvement rather than solely on grades. Establish a safe and supportive atmosphere where students feel comfortable taking risks and seeking help when needed.

2: Set Growth-Focused Goals

Show students how to set meaningful goals that go beyond performance-based achievements. Guide students through regular self-reflections on progress and explain how they can adjust their goals based on their evolving needs and aspirations. This process cultivates a student’s sense of ownership and inspires them to have a proactive attitude towards their own learning journey.

3: Emphasize the Power of "Yet"

Encourage students to adopt the phrase "I haven't mastered it yet" instead of "I can't do it." Teach them to see setbacks as temporary and not indicative of their overall abilities. Foster resilience by providing examples of famous figures who faced failure before achieving success. Highlight stories of individuals who overcame obstacles through hard work, perseverance, and a growth mindset. These narratives can motivate students and reinforce the idea that effort leads to improvement.

4: Promote Effort and Process

Shift the focus from grades and outcomes to the learning process itself. Delay giving them a numerical grade on an assignment until they have reviewed your feedback, identified specific areas for improvement, and set goals that challenge them to develop new skills. Encourage students to value effort, persistence, and dedication. Praise their hard work, strategies, and the steps they take to solve problems. Highlight the significance of seeking challenges, utilizing effective study techniques, and actively engaging in class discussions. By recognizing and valuing effort, you foster intrinsic motivation and a love for learning.

5: Cultivate Collaboration and Peer Support

Create opportunities for collaborative learning and peer support. Encourage students to work together, share knowledge, and provide constructive feedback to one another. Collaborative activities allow students to gain different perspectives, learn from their peers, and develop essential teamwork and communication skills. When instructors foster a supportive learning community, students feel more comfortable taking risks and seeking help when faced with difficulties.

6: Model a Growth Mindset

Lead by example and demonstrate a growth mindset in your own teaching practices. Share personal stories of challenges you have faced and the strategies you employed to overcome them. Embrace feedback and continually seek opportunities for professional growth. By modeling a growth mindset, you inspire students to adopt the same attitude towards their own learning journies.

Conclusion

Nurturing a growth mindset among students is a powerful tool that college instructors can use to help students unlock their full potential. By creating a positive classroom culture, setting growth-focused goals, and emphasizing effort and the learning process, instructors can lay the foundation for a successful and transformative semester. Remember, by fostering a growth mindset, you empower students to embrace challenges, develop resilience, and ultimately achieve greater academic and personal growth.  

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