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Do nurse educators align what they value with what they operationalise? A pedagogical calibration study of teaching
Raúl Quintana-Alonso1, Lucía Carton Erlandsson1, Elena Chamorro-Rebollo1
1Salus Infirmorum Nursing and Physiotherapy Faculty, Pontificial University of Salamanca, C/ Gaztambide Nº12, Madrid 28015, Spain.
Aim:
To examine pedagogical calibration as a structural feature of teaching competence by analysing the alignment between global competency ratings and their defining operational pedagogical principles among nurse educators.
Background:
Competency-based frameworks have strengthened the definition of teaching excellence in nursing education. Existing research primarily examines overall competency endorsement, providing limited insight into how educators internally align abstract competencies with operational pedagogical priorities.
Design:
Cross-sectional analytical study.
Methods:
A national sample of 327 nursing educators from Spanish universities completed a questionnaire assessing the perceived importance of nine teaching competencies and their operational principles using a five-point Likert scale. Calibration was operationalised through Gap scores representing discrepancies between global and operational ratings. A Pedagogical Calibration Index (PCI) was calculated as the mean absolute Gap across competencies. Exploratory model-based profiling identified latent calibration patterns and associations with professional development trajectories and teaching experience were examined.
Results:
Overall endorsement of competencies was high, yet systematic conceptual-operational discrepancies emerged (|Gap| range: 0.217-0.325). Misalignment was greatest in metacognitive and contextual competencies and lowest in communication-related domains. Three calibration profiles were identified: calibrated (26.9%), idealising (21.9%) and mixed/high-misalignment (51.2%). Calibration showed modest associations with professional development trajectories and improved slightly with teaching experience.
Conclusions:
Pedagogical calibration functioned as a structural dimension of teaching competence, revealing variability in how educators align abstract competencies with operational pedagogical priorities. Assessing conceptual-operational alignment may support more targeted faculty development strategies beyond traditional qualification-based approaches.
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