听
For Ingram School of Nursing professors Heather Hart and Norma Ponzoni, the best teaching fosters creativity, nurtures the imagination, sparks reflection and encourages active participation. This was the approach they took when tasked with designing a completely new course at the master鈥檚 level titled NUR2 603 Teaching and Learning in Nursing. Their innovative approach has paid off not only in terms of student satisfaction, but also through recognition by their peers as they received a Faculty Award for Teacher Innovation, presented by the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Previously, Advanced Nursing master鈥檚 students took a course on education offered through the Faculty of Education. When a recent curriculum review undertaken by Jodi Tuck, Program Director for Advanced Nursing, identified a gap in leadership in teaching, the decision was made to design a course that addresses concepts in teaching through a nursing lens. With backgrounds in both education and nursing, Profs. Hart and Ponzoni were well suited to designing and delivering this course, which was launched in the Winter of 2024. As Prof. Ponzoni explains, 鈥淲e鈥檝e been in the trenches so we understand how to apply educational concepts to students鈥� professional practice as nurses.鈥�
Prof. Hart, who describes herself as a risk-taker in the classroom, believes that teaching and learning should be experiential and fun. Eschewing PowerPoints and lectures in favour of conversations that stretch ways of thinking, she notes that the students in the class speak more than 70% of the time. 鈥淒espite their initial discomfort with new approaches 鈥� which we address head on 鈥� the students have faith and trust in our ideas and are active participants in their learning.鈥�
These ideas include the use of movement and art to wrestle with complex ideas. For example, on the topic of education paradigms, students were divided into small groups, with each assigned a particular theory. Participants in each group built a shared document and created a skit exemplifying that particular learning paradigm, which they performed for the class. Addressing the topic of providing feedback, the focus was on the power of feedback to shape confidence in their nursing practice. After sharing personal stories of harmful feedback they had received and how this impacted them, students then discussed what constitutes effective feedback.
No matter the topic, 鈥淏y modelling new ways of teaching, our goal is to give students the skillset to take on educational roles with enthusiasm and confidence, and to mentor new hires more effectively,鈥� says Prof. Ponzoni. Adds Prof. Hart, 鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting to open their eyes to new strategies and to explore concepts in ways that both challenge and inspire them to think differently about nursing education.鈥�