The impact of active/cooperative instruction on beginning nursing student learning strategy preference

Rapid changes in the nursing field and high demand for practicing nurses put pressure on nursing faculty to educate increasing numbers of nursing students, often without corresponding increases in resources. Although the use of active and cooperative instruction methods in the classroom has been associated with improved student learning, these practices require increased effort on the part of both faculty and students. In addition, little is known about whether these methods influence student nurses' use of these more elaborative processing strategies in their independent study. The purpose of this quasi-experimental investigation was to identify the impact of incorporating active and cooperative classroom instructional activities on student preference for teaching methods and use of learning strategies in independent study. A convenience sample of beginning baccalaureate nursing students at a large Mid-Atlantic University was randomly assigned by the registrar to two class sections. Students in one section received primarily active/cooperative instruction, while the other received primarily traditional lecture-based instruction. Results indicated that student nurses exposed to active/cooperative instructional methods had an increased preference for these methods after a semester of instruction, while those exposed to traditional instruction had a higher preference for traditional methods. In addition, students participating in active class instruction reported increased preference for more elaborative independent study strategies, although overall preference for both groups indicated a reliance on surface study strategies of memorization and recall. Implications for use of instruction and student testing methodologies are presented.