COMMUNICATION IN

TEACHING AND LEARNING

“ A communication to lifelong learning is the mark of a truly

professional person. He devotes time and attention to learning
how to learn, learn how to be selective and recognizes that
learning requires work”
-Signe Scott Cooper
 The ability of both teachers and students to
share their insights and their values regarding
nursing experience through effective
communication process.

 The teacher’s ability to personally talk to her

students during the course of the lesson can
help identify problems arising from the
discussion.
 ROLE OF COMMUNICATION IN TEACHING
AND LEARNING PROCESS

Communication presents a variety of meanings to

people. In an educational setting, it can be defined
as (Rosengren: 2000):

1. Anything that conveys a message. It carries a

message from one person to another
2. It means interacting with one another person
and secure a common experience
3. The ability to understand and find meaning
into the message sent for appropriate
response
4. Effective communication requires knowledge
of the subject matter, the theories, and the
stimuli to which other persons will respond or
react.
 Communication embodies the instructional
process which is the heart of education, while
instructional materials give shape and
substance to the curriculum , control it
contents which significantly affect the
teaching-learning process
 The Traditional mode of communication

 Print supplemented by motion pictures

 Slides or films

 Radio and disk recordings

Modern mode of communication includes the
media such as:
 Television

 Programmed machine teaching

 Language laboratories

 Computers

 Powerpoint
 Instructional media perform functions which were
for a long time an exclusive domain of the
teacher.
 It helps illustrate, discuss, analyze, present

content, form concepts, and build generalizations;

and even systematically prescribe areas for
student’s inquiry
 Modern mode of communication enhances
capabilities of teachers in nursing in the
classroom and in the clinical setting however,
this still need re-examination and possibly
reformulation in order to appropriately utilize
communication strategies specific to the
subject content taught (Young and Paterson:
2007)
Active communication - process enables the teacher
to present facts, design concepts, and guide
students in their related learning experiences
with a view of accomplishing the objectives
for learning.
Active communication can help the teacher do the
following ( Lewis: 1993):
 Works with individual students and gain attention

 Directs their learning to transfer meaning from

one area to another

 Uses machines for presentation of much of the

factual materials and routine exposition

 Points out further references
 Ask critical questions
 Encourage students to accept in increasingly

higher level of responsibility for their own

learning or educational growth
The teacher of nursing must be concerned with
teaching basic communication skills between:
 Patient and nurse

 Nurse and family

 Nurse and Doctor

 Nurses and other health care personnel

ELEMENTS OF
COMMUNICATION
1. The Source

Factors influencing effective communcation

a. Communication Skills

b. Knowledge

c. Attitudes

d. Social Status
Verbal skills constitute the primary communication
skills in a teacher.
Classification: (Kozier: 2005):
 Speaking and writing

 Listening and reading

 Intellectual skills-perceiving, memorizing,

reasoning, judging, abstracting

 Attitude toward the subject being taught

 Students and the teacher himself or herself

2. The Message
- is a physical form of words; it is the
translation of ideas, the purpose and intentions
of the teacher (Clark:2008)
3. The Channel
- to encode the purpose of the source into a
message, a channel is needed.
- case of face-to-face communication, the
encoding function is channeled directly by
the intellect, the sensory and the motor skills
of the source, such as vocal mechanism for oral
communication, the muscle system for the written
word or the drawing of pictures , posture and
gestures and facial expression for nonverbal
communication.
4. Receiver
- message is intended is considered the
receiver in the communication process.
- The student who is receiver interprets
the
message by listening attentively, reading.
 TYPES OF COMMUNICATION
1. Verbal or Oral Communication
-the basis for verbal or oral communication is
the interaction between individuals.
- usually done face-to-face.
2. Nonverbal
-it does not use words but rather more of
actions through signs, facial expression and
other body languages or movements
a. Sight - visual observation communicates many
information
b. Audition - communication is mostly received
through eyes
c. Gustation - sense of taste is closely allied with
the sense of smell, so much that without
it
people are unable to taste various food
d. Olfactory - sense of smell, is a distance
 RELEVANCE OF COMMUNCATION TO
TEACHING AND LEARNING

Many factors influence the effectiveness of any

particular communication, some of which are (De
Young, 2004):
 Knowledge

 Ability

 Experience

 Attitude

 Sociocultural status of both and receiver

 “The more the teacher knows about
the nature of communication process,
its components, the condition which
facilities it, the better are the chances
for effective teaching and learning.”
-Wiggins
Good teaching requires a teacher experienced
with:
 Old or new ideas

 Directions or demonstrations

 Intra-communication between teacher and

students
 Mutual sharing of experience

 Continual feedback of reciprocal response

adjustments
EVALUATING THE TEACHING-
LEARNING PROGRAM

“The significant problems we face cannot

be solved at the same level of thinking we
were at when we created them.”
-Albert Einstein
 The heart and soul of nursing education is the
clinical program where nursing knowledge is shaped
into professional practice. Integrating previous
experiences into the teaching role can be very
beneficial to a nurse educator.
 EVALUATION DEFINED
 a process of ascertaining of judging the value
of something through careful appraisal;
 done every day. It is the way through which an

individual expresses her likes and dislikes, and

by it, she determine what is of value and what
is not;
 involves measurement or appraisal of an

activity in terms of a particular standard;

 EVALUATION DEFINED
 involves a continuous process gathering data
and recording, assembling and interpreting
information for purposes of creating change
that will promote better performance or
accomplish desired objectives;
 in nursing requires assessment of the cognitive

outcomes of knowledge and understanding

 EVALUATION DEFINED
 uses skills for appraisal purposes to determine
how far a nurse performs efficiently and
effectively to meet desired goals and objectives
of care;
 Based on principles.

 1. anything that exist at all exist in some amount

and routine therefore can be measured.

 2. worth or value of a teaching method, a

learning method and materials of instruction

is
 FUNCTION OF EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION

 Assessing learning -formative that is done to find

out what and how well students and patients are
learning, what a nurse is teaching without a grade
 Evaluation further aims to:

1. Improve educational program

2. Achieve educational goals

3. Motivate and guide the learning activities of the

individual student or patient.

4. Motivate the teacher to evaluate critically
her teaching practices, the student’s learning
effectiveness and her own personal goals
5. Motivate the faculty to work together for the
improvement of the curriculum and the
educational program
 Evaluation is an integral tool in nursing;

1. The level of student’s knowledge and

appreciation of all courses taken during the
semester
2. The level of the student’s clinical performance
at various stages
3. Assess difficulties of individual student, or of
an entire class, as basis for further teaching
4. Diagnose each student’s strengths and
weaknesses for remedial measures which may
be necessary
5. Measures students achievement and informing
them of their success
6. Help develop students attitude, and skills in self-
evaluation
7. Promote self-directing attitude, and good study
habits
8. Provide additional motivation such as
examinations that provide opportunity to
practice critical thinking, the application of
principle and the making of judgment, among
others
9. Determine the effectiveness of teaching and
learning strategies and instructional media
used in reaching goals and objectives of the
course
10. Gather information needed in selecting
students for honors, courses, placement of
students for advanced studies, writing
recommendation, meeting graduation
requirements, among others.
 “ What of the future? It is to a very large
extent in our own hands. We will make many
errors but as long as we know our goal and
keep it ever in mind, our future is bright and
secure.”
-Lyle Morrison Creelman
 EVALUATION PROCESS FOR TEACHING
NURSING COURSES

1. The educational objective – teaching and

learning objectives are stated explicitly as guide
for instruction and student learning.
2. Teaching and learning procedures- various
procedures should be evaluated in the light of the
stated objectives and learning outcome.
3. Student progress – must be appraised to the
extend to which they achieved the course
goals and objectives.
- includes capacities, tendencies, interests,
attitudes, needs, purposes and aptitudes
of each student.
4. Learning outcome- correlation between course
objectives and learning outcomes must be
achieved.
 CRITERIA FOR SELECTION EVALUATE
DEVICES

1. Sampling course objectives- defined carefully

and clearly the behaviors implicit in the
objectives will serve as basis in developing good
tests (De Young;2003).
2. Sampling of the course content – represent the
range of the course content taught with emphasis
on what students “must know” rather than the
“nice to know” component of the course
(Heidgerken;1971).
3. Validity – test is the degree or extent to which
it measures what is intends to measure.
“ What is intended to measure” is the
criterion for the relevance of the test.
4. Reliability- can be determined through
application and statistical computation.
5. Practicality – refers to the development of
evaluative devices capable of being
administered and scored with reasonable
ease and within the limits of time and
resources imposed by circumstances.
6. Usefulness – tests are used for various
purposes, providing basis for students’ grades
and diagnosing students’ capabilities.
 Evaluative Devices
 1. Essay Examination-subjective type of
evaluation in which students are given questions
requiring critical description of situations based
on concepts or principles learned.
 time consuming to score, essay type of
questions lend themselves to testing the highest
level of thinking, analysis, synthesis and
evaluation of given situation (Emerson; 2007)
 2. Objective examination- consists of a large number of
questions and statements. Students’ answers are
indicated by marking the correct response to a particular
question in a prescribed manner.
a. multiple choice questions- challenging to
create but easy to score.
b. true or false questions- identify the
correctness of the statement of facts
c. matching questions- lowest level of knowing
which is useful in determining the learner recall
of the memorized relationship between two
3. Objective Problem-situation Test- describes a situation
not previously presented to the student with sufficient
detail to point out the problem involved.
Advantages in the use of objective problem-situation
tests:
 Used to represent patterns of behavior that constitute

nursing competence
 Less time consuming for the student to answer

 Useful to determine the students ability to apply

principles to new or related situations , and

 Can analyze easily the type of errors made by
students in the use of basic principles and concepts
Disadvantages of objective problem- situation test
 Time consuming to prepare,

 Requires great skill to prepare valid, reliable

problem-situation, and
 Requires considerably more space than objective

test
4. Standardized Tests
Three types of standardized test:
 Intelligence test-attempts to indicate the capacity,

the brightness or native intelligence of students as

compared to the norm of her age
 Prognostic test-intended to discover the

possibilities of a students success in a particular

area
 Achievement test- are designed to indicate the

accomplished of the student in the particular

course areas of the curriculum
5. Rating Scales- standardized method of recording
interpretations of behavior.
 EVALUATING PATIENT
LEARNING
Techniques for feedback on patient’s learning (De
Young: 2003)
1. Ask the patient to read pamphlets or brochures
and fact sheets summarizing what the nurse have
taught. Repeat important information
2. Interview patients with thorough observation,
discussion and gesturing which can elicit adequate
response and understanding of the information
taught
3. Determine change of patient behavior related to
health care practices
4. Do a return demonstration to determine skills
learned and collect evidence of teaching
effectiveness
5. Evaluate performance and provide reinforcements
6. Document the teaching information and evidences
of what the patient has learned. This is done for
legal and accreditation or audit purposes
“To evaluate a successful or unsuccessful approach (with a
patient) take into account the general aim of the situation.
Did it seem satisfactory? Was cooperation easily
established? Did the results appear good? Did you have an
inner feeling that things went smoothly? If you think it
may have been unsatisfactory look at yourself…?
-Marguerite Lucy Mafreda
 EVALUATING STUDENT
LEARNING
Criteria to determine effectiveness of student learning
(Clark: 2008):
1. Major element and sub-elements concerning the
rating.
2. The relative importance of each element
3. The range of scale used
4. Test blueprint. A chart that spells all the contents
about the level of knowledge to be tested
 TYPE OF STUDENT
EVALUATION
Students are important part of the evaluation process
and should be part of the planning process
(Keating:2006)
1. Formative process evaluation- formative evaluation
measure or evaluates the processes and progress, along
with the goal and objective, the level of students
learning and progress of the educational program. It is
the on-going feedback given to the learners throughout
the learning process (De Young: 2003)
2. Summative or outcome or end-point evaluation-is
given at the end of the learning experience in order
to assess whether the learner has achieved the
objectives and is ready to move on the next
experience.
 FRAMEWORK FOR EVALUATION
MEASUREMENT

1. Norm-referenced measurement- applied to clinical

evaluation, where each student’s performance is
measured against that of the other students in the
clinical group.
2. Criterion-referenced measurement- the learner is
compared to a well-defined or predetermined
criteria of performance standard that has been
delineated in terms of goals behaviors.
EVALUATIVE DATA SOURCES
Sources of evaluation of student performance:
1. Faculty observation of student while performing
nursing procedures
2. Written assignments of the students such as case
studies, drug analysis, nursing care plan
3. Students clinical records for reference purposes
4. Oral communication with
 Peers

 Patients

 Clinical instructors

 Other members of the health team

5. Self-evaluation
6. Agency personnel
7. Other members of the health team