Faculty perceptions toward the scholarship of teaching

Nursing educators have been encouraged to engage in the scholarship of teaching as a form of best practice in education. Despite professional documents and encouragement by leaders in the field of nursing, there is very little known about nursing educators' perceptions and engagement in the scholarship of teaching. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to understand the perceptions nursing educators had regarding research activities related to the scholarship of teaching. These activities included reading educational research, encouraging others to read educational research, applying educational research to teaching practice, conducting, and disseminating educational research. The study was based on the theories of constructivism and diffusion of innovation. A sample of six nursing educators were interviewed regarding their perceptions about the scholarship of teaching as part of the faculty role, perceptions of their ability to perform, and current participation in the research related activities. The findings indicated nursing educators understood the definition of scholarship of teaching, the importance of using evidence-based teaching methods, and desired to incorporate the scholarly activities into their classrooms. The participants indicated that the research related activities, especially conducting and disseminating educational research, were difficult to perform. Reasons given for the difficulty in performance included lack of time, lack of formal pedagogy training, and lack of administrative support. The implications of these findings offer nursing faculty ideas on how to incorporate the scholarship of teaching into their everyday lesson plans and course curriculums. The findings also indicated continuing education is needed for educators on nursing education pedagogy and evidence-based teaching methods. However, for nursing education to improve there needs to be cooperation between administration and the nursing educators. Additional research is needed comparing the perceptions of educators who actively engage in the scholarship of teaching to educators who do not. What are the differences and what are the similarities in the way these different groups conduct their classrooms?...