How nurse educators promote reflective thinking in a college of nursing in KwaZulu-Natal.

Abstract

There is a great deal of literature and a number of research studies that have been carried out on reflective practice, models and frameworks of reflection and teaching strategies that successfully promote reflective thinking. This study addresses the need to adopt teaching - learning approaches in nursing education that develop a link between theory and practice in a meaningful way. Reflective thinking is one such approach which is gaining popularity. Reflection is claimed as a goal in many teacher education programmes but the application of reflective teaching strategies has been problematic. This study was aimed at exploring how nurse educators of the Nursing Colleges in KwaZulu-Natal promoted reflective thinking in their teaching. Three of the four Nursing Colleges chosen for data collection were from the greater Durban Metropolitan area because of the accessibility of the participants. There were seventy-two participants in the study. A quantitative design was used, followed by statistical analysis of the data. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire which included structured and semi-structured questions. What emerged in this study is the need for Nurse Educators to take cogniscance of determining appropriate teaching strategies that would develop reflective thinking skills amongst learners. However, the findings indicate that most Nurse Educators do utilize teaching strategies that promote reflective thinking, but a large percentage still use the lecture method as the primary teaching strategy.