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In South Africa today a constant stream of demands characterise higher education. The global employment market expects graduating students to be flexible, adoptable and prepared to take responsibility for their own learning and their own continuous professional development. The pace of technological change in health sciences and the volume of available information highlight the need to develop students’ critical reflective thinking. A paradigm shift is required in health science education from one of providing instruction to one of promoting effective and lifelong learning. Educators in health sciences need to revisit, rethink and evaluate criteria for health practice. The challenge of this research is to investigate the integration of critical reflection as a learning strategy in the outcomes of learning programmes within a transformative education approach; the integration of theory and practice through a reflective learning approach; the development and implementation of different learning tools to facilitate effective learning; the importance of establishing an understanding of the link between the learning styles of students and critical reflection as a learning strategy; and the value of the integration of critical reflection to promote lifelong learning. A mixed methods research approach was primarily utilised to monitor facilitation of learning initiatives and appropriate activities for strengthening the learning-centred approach, through reflective journals and reflective learning groups. A quantitative and qualitative study was used in which a pilot study questionnaire, observations, structured interviews and questionnaires were conducted and completed. The findings of this investigation indicate that critical reflection adds value to the effectiveness of learning. The investigation also revealed the value of sharing learning experiences in a small learning group and proved that the learning environment for radiography education allows enough opportunities to integrate an alternative learning strategy such as critical reflection. All role players in health science education need to build their own skills to function effectively as whole brain thinkers with a view to maximizing learning effectiveness. Reflective practice enhances lifelong learning and can also be utilised as a tool for quality control of the learning programme. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

The diploma thesis is focused on the topic of transformative learning in connection with adult experiential learning. The goal of the thesis is to identify transformative effects in the interpretation of participants' experiences which are caused by experiential learning courses. The concept of transformative learning is mainly examined by foreign authors who look at the concept from different perspectives. This thesis deals with a qualitative survey which is based on the reflection of the common framework of transformative learning, including its various concepts and topic of adult experiential learning. Respondents of the survey are nine employees in management positions who have completed a long-term development program focused on management skills. The development of semi-structured interview with respondents was aimed at identifying a shift in "knowing" and changes in thinking, perception and action throughout life. The analysis of qualitative data brings concrete implications in the interpretation of experience in work and personal life. Key words transformative learning, Jack Mezirow, perspective transformation, disorienting dilemma, critical reflection, dialogue, experiential education, Kolb's learning cycle, experience

The current study aimed at investigating the impact of implementation of reflective audiotaped journals on complexity, accuracy and fluency of second language (L2) speech in a general English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course. To conduct the study, 30 Iranian advanced English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners of a private language institute in Hamedan, Iran were selected randomly from among 60 learners to participate in the study. In order to put the effect of audiotaped journals on Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency (CAF triad) under close scrutiny, data were collected through audio-recorded initial lectures, videotaped final lectures, reflective audiotaped journals and focus group interview. It is noteworthy to mention that both quantiative and qualitative analyses were conducted to address our research question. Three Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Tests were then employed to compare the second language learners’ oral performance across three measures of CAF, at the beginning and end of the semester. The findings revealed that using reflective audiotaped journals assisted second language (L2) learners to have a better oral performance in terms of complexity (syntactic variety) and accuracy. Furhter, qualitative analysis indicated that using reflective audiotaped journals assisted L2 learners to reflect on their own learning process, resulting in a better oral performance.

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe students’ experiences of community engagement in an Educational Psychology practicum. The theoretical framework was Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning theory. The study consulted relevant literature relating to community engagement, the experiences of students of community engagement activities, such as service-learning; the asset-based approach, positive psychology and the learning strategies relevant to the community engagement practice, namely experiential and reflective learning. A qualitative research approach was applied, guided by an interpretivist epistemology. An instrumental case study design was employed and the Department of Educational Psychology of the University of Pretoria, which was involved in the community engagement practicum, was conveniently selected for this research study. I selected one focus group for a pilot study, and later selected a second focus group, consisting of 8 purposefully selected students of the MEd Educational Psychology degree, as my research participants. Focus group interviews, reflective journals and visual data served as data collection methods. And, to further enrich the data collection process, audio-visual methods and a personal reflective journal also served as methods of data documentation Four main themes emerged as the result of thematic analysis and interpretation. Firstly, during the focus group interview, the students conversed about how they gained insight into themselves as Educational Psychologists within South Africa, such as their experiences of encountering individuals from different socio-economic groups, cultures, race and language. Secondly, the students also experienced professional development as a result of their experiences from the Educational Psychology community engagement practicum. That included experiencing themselves as being more confident, able to adapt to new situations and deeper insight into their role as a professional. Thirdly, the students discussed experiences related to integration of theory and practice. Their ability to understand theories, such as the asset-based approach and positive psychology, was enhanced as a result of putting it into practice. Finally, the students had experiences relating to structuring a community engagement practicum. The students expressed the need to receive additional information on the orientation and preparation of the practicum, as at times they had felt unsure of what was expected of them. They experienced the time spent in the practicum as being limited and discussed their experiences of writing in a reflective journal and participating in reflective dialogue Based on the findings, community engagement in this Educational Psychology practicum can be regarded as being a valuable inclusion to the training programme of these students of Educational Psychology, as it gave them the opportunity to interact with diverse clients in a South African setting. As a result of experiential learning during the practicum, students acquired several skills that they would not have gained in a classroom setting, such as the ability to work with diversity, groups, different age groups and in different contexts. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

In post-basic education of neonatal nurses the challenge is in how to prepare reflective practitioners for their role in neonatal nursing practice. Generic outcomes from SANC and higher education are available that promote the education of reflective neonatal nurses, but do not give much clarity on exactly how this is to be achieved. This prompted the research question: ‘How can professional nurses in a South African context be educated to become reflective neonatal nurses?’ This study aims to develop a model for the education of reflective neonatal nurses in a South African context. To achieve the aim of the study, an exploratory and descriptive design was used, which was in essence qualitative and contextual in nature, to develop the model. The model was developed following the process for developing nursing theory: a topic of interest was selected, which was a framework of several concepts; relationships between the concepts supported by evidence was identified and clarified; and relational statements were organised to describe the components of the conceptual model. The structural components of the model were identified as a purpose (specific learning-, critical- and end-product outcomes of education of reflective neonatal nurses); a framework (higher education, nursing education and neonatal nursing practice in a South African context); dynamics (reflective learning); a recipient (neonatal nurses as students); an agent (neonatal educator); and a procedure (education programme). The study had three phases that had different goals, but occurred simultaneously, overlapping and interrelating in the process of developing the model. The first phase was identifying and clarifying the concepts related to educational aspects of importance in education of reflective neonatal nurses. It was based on theoretical inquiry, concept analysis and inductive and deductive reasoning to describe the framework of education (higher- and nursing education), reflective learning, neonatal nursing students, role of the educator and educational approaches. The second phase was identification and clarification of concepts in neonatal nursing practice related to education of reflective neonatal nurses. This was done by means of inductive and deductive reasoning, based on the extensive experience and knowledge of the researcher in the field, followed by literature control and confirmed by peer review of neonatal nursing Model for education of reflective neonatal nurses in a South African context experts and/or educators. As a result the competences and professional characteristics expected of reflective neonatal nurses were synthesised and the content outline of an educational programme was deduced. The third phase was constructing and describing a model for educating reflective neonatal nurses in a South African context, which involved developing relational statements linking the concepts clarified in the previous two phases. Experts in model development, higher education, nursing education and / or neonatal nursing practice evaluated the model in this phase. Ethical considerations of relevance in this study were especially informed consent by the participants (peer- and expert review), and to give credit to all sources used. Strategies to enhance trustworthiness included triangulation of sources, prolonged engagement of the researcher, clarification of the underlying assumptions of the study, thick description of the process, and validation by means of peer- and expert review. Recommendations were made regarding dissemination of the model, practice, education and further research. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Nursing Science / unrestricted

The science and technology of medicine is evolving and changing at a fast pace. With these rapid advances, it is paramount that physicians maintain a level of medical knowledge that is current and relevant to their practice in order to address the challenges of patient care and safety. One way physicians can maintain a level of medical knowledge that is current and relevant to their practice is through self-directed, lifelong learning, however little is known about how to develop these traits during clinical training. Schön (1983, 1987) theorized that one way learners can become self-directed, lifelong learners is through reflective practice. This study utilized an experimental design and employed quantitative methods to investigate the effects of a reflective practice exercise, based on Gibbs' (1988) model of reflection, on readiness for self-directed learning as measured by Guglielmino's (1977) Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale/Learning Preference Assessment (SDLRS/LPA). A total of 51 anesthesiology residents training in three residency programs in the United States participated in this study. A follow-up survey was administered to all study participants to determine if participation in the reflective exercises affected future engagement in or attitudes about reflective practice. While the data analysis showed that participation in reflective practice did not affect readiness for self-directed learning in these study participants, this study has implications for medical education. Responses to the follow-up survey indicated that participants plan to engage in reflective practice in the future and that participating in reflective practice would have an impact on patient care. Chapter 5 includes ways to integrate the findings of this study into medical education and outlines next steps for future research utilizing both evidence from the literature and the qualitative responses from this study.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The role of the nurse has changed dramatically in the past twenty years with increasing complexity of patient care and a rapidly changing health care environment. In addition to the challenges noted regarding patient care, problems with increasing medical errors were noted in the literature specific to graduates in their first year as a nurse. Research in particular to nursing education provides a way for nurse educators to become more astute at addressing problems pervading the role of the new nursing graduate. Narrative Pedagogy was identified as a research-based nursing pedagogy and has been researched and enacted for more than a decade. Out of the Narrative Pedagogy research, the Concernful Practices emerged identifying what was considered meaningful to nursing education by teachers, students, and clinicians. Listening was one of the Concernful Practices and became the focus of this study. The research question addressed the “How do nurse educators who enable Narrative Pedagogy experience Listening: knowing and connecting?” This was a hermeneutic phenomenological study in which ten nurse educators shared their experiences. The two themes that emerged from the study included: Listening as Dialogue and Listening as Attunement. The findings of this study provided a different way of thinking about teaching and learning that encompasses so much more than merely a strategy or outcome-based approach. The implications of this study offer nurse educators insight about opening a dialogue that draws attention to the realities of the role of the nurse responding to multiple patients with complex health conditions.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Marc Prensky’s digital natives theory became popular, because it supplied teachers with answer as to why students were unresponsive to their curriculums. In essence, Prensky’s theory asks: what has changed? In most cases, it is not the teachers’ curriculums that have changed, so it has to be something else. Prensky points to digital technologies, because teachers are now having to teach students who never knew a world without digital technologies—Prensky, of course, asserting that this changes the way students think, which naturally transfers over to how they learn. In short, it is the students that have changed due to digital technologies. According to Prensky, students, within the digital natives generation, would value their courses more if teachers utilized digital technologies in their classroom. However, critics of the digital natives theory assert that Prensky has not considered many variables that could have an effect on how students use digital technologies, such as socio-economic factors, gender, education, and geographic location, and ultimately there is no empirical evidence to support the use of digital technologies in Prensky’s pedagogy (see Sue Bennett and Karl Maton, Chris Jones et al., Anoush Margaryan et al., and Neil Selwyn). Although, I mostly agree with the critics evaluations of the digital natives theories, I believe that there are larger economic variables, such as Gee et al.’s new capitalism, that influence how students value digital technologies as well as literacy and learning. This concept was reflected in the survey that I conducted in order to examine how students value W131 in general, the writing done in W131, and writing done in social digital technologies. The survey demonstrated that students do not understand social digital writing to be writing; therefore, utilizing digital technologies in the writing classroom, as Prensky suggest, would not be beneficial, because it would take a great deal of class time for students to come to the understanding that social digital writing is writing. More importantly, the survey indicated that students are highly career motivated, which influences how students value their courses. For students, a course’s value is determined by how applicable it is to students’ career goals. The survey results suggest that while students recognize that first-year composition (FYC) has value, they do not necessarily see it specifically valuable to their primary goals. Although I believe it is important for students to be able to find value in a course, I am not suggesting that FYC should be tailored to cater to students; on the contrary, I believe that the ideal FYC course would acknowledge the values of the field of study that it pertains to, and attempt to demonstrate to students how those values relate to their own. This is ideal—however, by using the Writing about Writing pedagogy, designed by Douglas Downs and Elizabeth Wardle, this kind of value system may be possible. Downs and Wardle’s pedagogy also has the potential to bridge the value systems of the students, and writing studies, because Downs and Wardle’s pedagogy focuses on students gaining a better understanding of writing studies as a field of study, by engaging and exploring texts that represent writing studies’ central beliefs and important works. Through texts that come out of the writing studies discipline students can gain a better understanding of concepts that come out of writing studies, as well as build a bridge between students’ values and the values of the writing studies discipline. Texts such as chapter six (“The Means of Production: Literacy and Stratification as the Twenty-First Century) of Deborah Brandt’s Literacy in American Lives, James Paul Gee’s “The New Literacy Studies and the ‘Social Turn,’” and Harvey Graff’s “The Literacy Myth at Thirty,” offers students a new perspective on the economic climate that effects the job market, as well as provide a meaningful way into writing studies. In this chapter, I will discuss Downs and Wardle’s Writing about Writing pedagogy, how I would implement their pedagogy in a FYC course, and what would be the ideal learning outcomes for this course.