Theoretical Construction And Experimental Study On The Caring Teaching Model

ObjectivesIn the light of current situation that little has been done on systematic and thorough theoretical and practical study on caring education domestically as well as research on constructing a caring teaching model integrated with nursing curriculum's teaching abroad, our study, based on the prior study which developed a theoretical framework of nurses'caring character in the Chinese context, aims at theoretically constructing a caring teaching model and testing the model with teaching experiment, so as to provide an effective and scientific caring teaching model with a framework of teaching process and a system of teaching strategies.Content and Methods1. Theoretical Construction for the Caring Teaching ModelThrough literature review,we had an overview of current researches on caring education domestically and abroad. Through study on the theories of pedagogy, educational psychology and human caring and on the framework of caring character developed in the prior study, we constructed a theoretical framework of caring teaching model according with nursing curriculum's teaching.2. Development of QuestionnaireBased on literature review and theoretical study, according to the outcome of prior study, a questionnaire was developed which was proved to have good content validity and reliability by experts'consultation and pre-test respectively, therefore being capable for testing nursing students'caring character.3. Conducting Experimental StudyTo examine the effectiveness and feasibility of the caring teaching model, a design of one group pre-post-test experimental study was adopted with Fundamental Nursing curricula as a platform and a cohort of grade 2 undergraduate nursing students (n=64) as participants, was performed, with a good result.4. Summarizing Principles for the Caring Teaching ModelSupported by theoretical study and experimental study, we further summarized the principles for the effective caring teaching model. Five principles were proposed. Results1. Theoretical Framework for the Caring Teaching ModelThe caring teaching model takes"creating situation-inspiring emotion-practice-generating inspiration"as procedural framework and creats aesthetic situation and experiential situation as mainlines, with equal interaction between teachers and students in the whole teaching process. The caring teaching model includes teaching objective system illustrating caring characters'feature, teaching content system compromising caring attitude, and teaching procedure system reflecting the process of caring character's internalization and teaching condition system promoting caring characters'internalization and teaching evaluation system according with the feature of caring character.2. Results of Teaching ExperimentQuantity data of the teaching experiment showed that post-test scores of each item regarding to the participants'caring characters were higher than those in pre-test and the difference between pre-test and post-test was of statistical significance(p<0.01). The difference between the scores of participants'from different student sources in pre-test and post-test were not of statistical significance (p>0.05). The results suggested that the scores of post-test of participants'in the experimental class were higher than those of grade 3 undergraduate nursing students (n=45) in the control class, and of statistical significance (p<0.01).Qualitative data of the teaching experiment gathered from the documents of class observation, thematic content analysis of students'caring narratives, and the description of narrative reflective practice and narrative inquire. Class observation showed that the caring teaching model was applied well and that students'caring inspiration in classroom was satisfying. Thematic content analysis of 1220 narratives of students'caring journals and clinical caring practice notes was conducted. Two main thematic categories were revealed, the first focused on students'caring characters'development including nursing being a profession full of love, perception of caring and being cared, career identity, empathy, performing caring behaviour, and expressing responsibility, patience and sincerity in caring practice. The second focused on the influence which teaching strategies and methods in caring teaching model had on students'caring characters, including pre-class five-minute's caring presentation, empathy generation in role-playing, perceiving caring from the caring group, caring journal being pedagogical space for caring inspiration, caring practice in clinic, interpretation of caring in the second class, teachers being our role model, permeating caring in details, teachers supposed to pay timely attention to students'needs. Themes reflected, from the students'point of view, development of students'caring character and the impact which the caring teaching model had on this regard. The descriptive analysis of narrative reflective practice and narrative inquire objectively revealed the process of nursing students'caring character's development and gave prop for the evaluation of caring teaching model's effectiveness.3. Five Principles for the Caring Teaching ModelHere five principles for the effective caring teaching model were proposed as follows: principle of leading and coordinating for teaching principles; principle of caring inspiration and caring practice for teaching objectives; principle of caring interaction in teaching environment, principle of self-organization for teaching process, and principle of psychological field action for teaching situation, thus enhancing the model's feasibility and generalizability.ConclusionThe study developed a scientific and effective caring teaching model based on both theoretical and practical underpinnings. Five systems were designed in the caring teaching model which were teaching objective system, teaching content system, teaching process system, teaching condition system and teaching evaluation system, applied in nursing curriculum's teaching. Our study provides a set of framework of teaching process and a system of teaching strategies for caring education, as well a good foundation for promoting medical humanity education.