Your Most Innovative Teaching Techniques

[puggymae]

I am always looking for a new or better way to teach something. Our program has gotten away from lecture and power points in class (those things are posted on the web for the students as study aids) to hands on demonstrations by the students, discussion groups facilitated by the instructor, and other activities.

So tell me - what do you do thats "way cool" as my students say? (Students feel free to jump in here too and tell us about really innovative things that you have seen in the classroom).

[vickynurse]

Gosh, no lectures? Do the students really study the ppts? What are your NCLEX scores like?

[puggymae]

Our NCLEX pass rate was 96% for the last graduating class (May 06).

Students live up to your expectations - we expect them to come to class prepared (that means do the readings, read the on-line information, work in workbooks, watch on-line videos). During class we answer any questions about the material, then we progress to the application portion of the lessons.

Making lecture notes and power points is pretty easy - coming up with simulations, discussions, scenarios or case studies every day is HARD.

The first day I tried this I had posted the assignments on-line a week ahead of time. I came to class, and I started class by saying "Okay, who has questions?" Everybody sat there like a bump on a log and I said "Okay, then I will see you on Wedensday." They all sat their with their mouths open and I picked my stuff up and left. On Wednesday there were a lot of really good questions, and they were ready to participate.

[VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN]

What a wonderful idea for a thread, puggymae! :)

One successful innovative strategy that we implemented at my former school of nursing involved test reviews. Instead of having the usual gripe sessions with the typical challenging the lecturer over the "fairness" of a test item, we divided the students into groups of 5-6 and let them take the test over as a group. Groups who scored 90% or above were awarded 1 point to each individual test score. After the groups were finished and Scantrons collected, then we had the usual run-of-the-mill test review. But by this time, the students were much more subdued as they had learned so much from their classmates in their individual groups. This strategy helped improve comprehension of content material and overall retention of students.

[puggymae]

Do you pick the groups for the students? My idea would be 5 groups and put the students with the top five grades one per group. Then the next 5 highest scores, so on and so forth. If they pick their own groups it seems to me that they group themselves according to ability. Thoughts?

[VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN]

Do you pick the groups for the students? My idea would be 5 groups and put the students with the top five grades one per group. Then the next 5 highest scores, so on and so forth. If they pick their own groups it seems to me that they group themselves according to ability. Thoughts?

We stratified them according to their grades (done very nonconspicuously of course to safeguard student privacy). After the test was graded, the faculty went down the list of grades and placed one student in each group, from the highest performer to the lowest, until all students were assigned out. That way, each group had an equal share of "A," "B," "C," and "D" students and no one group had the advantage. And students weren't allowed to choose their groupmates. Participation in the groups was voluntary and held in the afternoon the day after the exam.

[VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN]

This post/ thread looks very promising for a lab activity:

https://allnurses.com:80/forums/f205/what-would-lab-values-mi-199591.html