EDUCATIONAL STRATEGIES
Year:2011 | Volume:3 | Issue:4|Papers Count:11

Introduction: Phenomenological studies generally deal with individuals’ conceptions, attitudes and beliefs and feelings and affections. In this approach, individuals’ experiences can be extracted from specific phenomena using interviews, cultural products or things that the author designs (such as films, photographs and etc.). This paper seeks to investigate the application of Van Maanen’s phenomenology viewpoint in curriculum development studies. The aim of this study was investigation and description of Van Maanen’s phenomenology viewpoint in fields of deductions from curriculum, rate of respect and attention to the teacher, importance of teaching and choosing educational contents and materials.Conclusion: Each individual’s personal bio-cosmos can be recognized in general knowledge about daily experiences. This approval will open a way to observe the descriptions of other people’s bio-cosmoses. Studies show that students’ reports of their bio-cosmos are incredibly variable and are so brief that a general and clear model cannot be shaped from them.

Introduction: The relationship of meta-cognition as a common concept in pedagogy, with the learning process is undeniable. Pedagogical researchers are highly interested in the type and level of learners' required knowledge. In order to enable learners to have an independent reflection in confronting with various problems, educational systems are obliged to emphasize on meta-cognitive learning and "learning how to learn". The capacity to gain cognition and control over the context to be learnt is known as meta-cognition and plays an important role in improvement and development of cognitive functions and can develop learning skills. Metacognition plays a significant role in successful learning, so that more powerful cognition skills of learners will lead to more success in learning. In other words, learner should play an active role in learning process and learn to evaluate his learning process and apply new styles of learning in case of any failure in former ones.Conclusion: Teaching learners the meta-cognitive skills plays a significant role in empowerment of students’ learning efficacy; therefore, teachers have to focus on this point in order to turn students into active learners.

Introduction: One of the important student learning strategies is to impress their cultural and social behaviors and models, and in other words “role-modeling”. Role-modeling or teaching with models is the essence of teaching and an important function of nursing teachers is being a model through proper behavior or performance. Nursing teachers believe that the role-modeling in clinical education, is the most effective and accurate method of transfering the experience and professional attitude to the students. However, role-modeling as a practical training strategy is not well known and teaching of role-model is now a challenge in nursing curriculum.Conclusion: Awareness of teaching approaches and factors that affect it is of great importance for curriculum designers and teachers. Therefore, it is essential to take measures in further understanding of the role-modeling process and its operationalizing.

Introduction: The role of multiple intelligences in effectiveness of e-learning has been investigated in this study. For this purpose, first, the problems of e-learning institutions, the teamwork method and the meaning of multiple intelligences are introduced and then, the model has been represented. It seems that using multiple intelligences in creation and composing the work forces can be beneficial in institutions that are responsible for management of human resources.Conclusion: Considering the structure and nature of activity in e-learning institutions, members can perform their duties in a better way by synergizing through supplementary efforts and unified trending. In other words, the organizational nature of e-learning institutions needs determined systematic structures that cannot be neglected in designing and realizing such systems. None of the components of e-learning organization can work solitary as a routine. In fact, effective and successful functioning for each department’ activities is impossible without receiving other departments’ help. Cooperation in activities in this organizational approach will oblige the employees to gain a variety of skills. Expansive implementation of skills and abilities of multiple intelligences in teamwork will lead to the high quality of results and services.

Introduction: Simulation is a version of some real tools or work situations that tries to exhibit some behavioral features of an abstract or physical system through behavior of another system. The main purpose of application of simulation in health care is preparing students to confront with clinical situations which can increase patients’ safety, decrease errors and refine nurses’ clinical judgments. This approach decreases so much complications of learning which exist in real world. By this method, students gain the opportunity of learning skills which in real world there is little possibility to gain them. Simulators are planned in a way that can show reaction against wrong actions of students and assist in correcting actions with proper feedback.Conclusion: Simulation leads to change in learner’s view, preparedness of learner to learn new roles and will also help learners towards understanding professional roles, exhibiting effective roles, and will increase learners’ interest and motivation and create critical thinking processes in learners.

Introduction: Educators often speak of web-based learning (WBL) as a single entity or a cluster of similar activities with homogeneous effects. Yet a recent systematic review demonstrated large heterogeneity among results from individual studies. 266 eligible studies were identified comparing a WBL intervention with no intervention or another educational activity. Purpose of this study is to describe the variation in configurations, instructional methods and presentation formats in WBL.Conclusion: Nearly all courses (89%) used written text and most (55%) used multimedia. A total of 32% used online communication via e-mail, threaded discussion, chat or videoconferencing, and 9% implemented synchronous components. 24% blended web-based and non-computerbased instruction. 77% of WBL employed specific instructional methods (other than text alone) to enhance the learning process. The most common instructional methods (each used in nearly 50% of courses) were patient cases, self-assessment questions and feedback. Educators and researchers cannot treat WBL as a single entity. Many different configurations and instructional methods are available for WBL instructors. Researchers should study when to use specific WBL designs and how to use them effectively.

Aims: Nursing is an applied profession and clinical training of nurses, forms the basis of its entire educational program. Clinical education has been recognized as the heart of professional nursing education. This study was carried out n order to determine the clinical education status from trainers and nursing students’ point of view.Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in one of Tehran city universities of medical sciences in 2008. This study was performed using census sampling method on a sample group including 59 nursing students and 21 nursing trainers. Data was collected by a 6-part questionnaire containing demographic data and 5 fields related to clinical education status (aims and plan of education, trainers’ attitudes towards students in clinical environment, educational environment, supervision and evaluation). Data was analyzed by independent t-test, ANOVA and Mann-Whitney test.Results: 52.9 % of study units evaluated the status of clinical education as good, 45.8% evaluated it at moderate level and 1.4% evaluated it as weak. 55.1% of students evaluated it as moderate, 42.85% as good and 2.04% as weak, while 76.19% of trainers evaluated it as good and 23.8% evaluated it as moderate. Mann-Whitney test a statistically significant difference between the two groups’ viewpoint (p=0.01).There was a significant different between students’ and trainers’ viewpoint on clinical education status in fields of aims and plan of education, trainer and also supervision and evaluation (p<0.05).Conclusion: There is difference between students’ and trainers’ viewpoint on nursing clinical education status.

Aims: To improve the performance of educational institutions, identifying of improper outputs status and influential factors on incidence of relevant indicators is essential. Therefore, this study was carried out in order to assess improper outputs and its related factors.Methods: In this cross-sectional study all the graduates of health faculty of KUMS from 1991 until the end of 2003 (n=1455) were selected by census method. A questionnaire including the determining indicators of improper outputs (unacceptable average, withdrawing, university dismiss, education quit, and major changing) and possible related factors was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using odds ratio and difference percentage by SPSS 16 software.Results: prevalence of unacceptable total average, withdrawing, university dismiss, education quit, and major changing were 9.42, 1.5, 0.1, 1.2, and 0.5%, respectively. Moreover, there was association between improper outputs and the demographic data, educational background and admission criteria.Conclusion: Gender, residence area, diploma type, marital status, admission type and history of taking guest courses in other universities, time period between two educational levels, major, level, education group, the average of former educational levels and age of entering university are effective in improper outputs status.