Study Weariness of Vocational College Students and Reform of the Teaching Mode in Nursing Basic Technology Course☆

Fei-Cheng Cai, Hai-Fang Xi

Yongzhou Vocational Technical College, Yongzhou, Hunan 425100, China

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Study Weariness of Vocational College Students and Reform of the Teaching Mode in Nursing Basic Technology Course☆

Fei-Cheng Cai*, Hai-Fang Xi

YongzhouVocationalTechnicalCollege,Yongzhou,Hunan425100,China

1. Introduction

Study weariness of vocational college students exists in different colleges and majors. It brings great harm to the students and is also related to the healthy development of both vocational college education and the country's economy. Therefore, attention should be paid and effort devoted to solving this problem by parents, teachers, colleges and related educational departments. Study weariness of vocational college students is a common phenomenon that has been developing rapidly, as shown by Wang,1Zheng,2Tang,3Wang Aiqin,4and Wang.5The poor effect of class education is one external factor of study weariness. To solve this problem, many countries adopt effective methods (as psychological counseling, motivational education etc.) and build different education models. These education models are very effective and well-developed, for example, depending on circumstances, “student-centered” in America, “ability-centered” in Canada, and “dual system” vocational education in Germany. Now, research is focusing on the introduction of foreign results in China, which does not have a well-developed vocational education model. The authors performed a survey of 128 nursing vocational college students, analyzing the situations, behaviors and causes of study weariness. On the basis of the survey of the causes of the study weariness of vocational college students, the authors investigated the effect of the reform of the teaching mode: integrating theory with practice, combining teaching and learning with doing. The authors attempt to solve the study weariness of vocational college students through reform of the teaching mode.

2. Material and methods

2.1. Research material

The authors chose members of the third-year Nursing Class 1 and Class 2 (2012) as research subjects for a total of 128 students, including six men and 122 women. Their age was between 18 and 21 years. They were randomly divided into experimental class and control class. The age and academic records between two classes were not significantly different.

The authors attempted to make a change in the Nursing Basic Technology course. Nursing Basic Technology is one of the main specialized nursing courses. The book used for the course has several basic characteristics such as practicality, comprehensiveness and applicability. It is a national planning material, edited by Tao Liyun and published by Higher Education Press.

2.2. Methods

2.2.1. Reform principles

The basis of the reform is based on the following principles of curriculum reform put forward by Dai Shihong, the director of the Ministry of Education of the Modern Education Technology Teacher Training Base. (1)It makes uses integrative design of theory and practice of content, rather than the previous profile that separates theory from practice. (2)The content of the course is designed based on the professional activity and is working-process oriented. (3)The goal of the course is to highlight the ability to target practice, rather than focusing on knowledge only. (4)The training process is designed carefully, rather than covering topics at will as in the past. (5)The teaching modes are to learn by doing,6learning from doing, and doing by learning, rather than learning before doing or doing before learning.

2.2.2. Comparison of the new and old teaching modes

According to the vocational students' characteristics, the authors changed their teaching modes (Table 1).

2.2.3. Comparison of the new and old teaching plans

Nursing Basic Technology has 160 class hours. The theory and practice courses had 80 class hours each before the teaching reform. The theory to practice ratio was 1 to 1. The theory courses have 40 class hours and theory-practice courses have 120 hours after teaching reform. The theory-practice courses accounts for 75% of the master plan. Forty classes were designed, and each combines theory with practice.

2.2.4. Reform assessment

Student questionnaire assessment: The authors designed the Students' Satisfaction Questionnaire to investigate experimental class. The questionnaires used four evaluation standards: very good, good, fair and bad.Theory test assessment and practical test assessment: students in the experimental and control classes were asked the same questions after the course ended. All of the results were analyzed with SPSS software. The authors observed the difference between the two classes. The whole process used the same examination paper, invigilation, standards of grading and paper marking to reduce the differences between the classes.

3. Results

3.1. Results of student questionnaire assessment

Students' Satisfaction Questionnaires were sent to 64 students, and 64 were available in the experimental class. Thirty-nine students reported very good results, accounting for 60.9%; 25 reported good results, accounting for 39.1%. The student satisfaction rate was 100%.

3.2. Results of the theoretical and practical tests (Table 2)

4. Discussion

Traditional teaching modes have failed to satisfy the requirements of modern nursing education. Through the reform of the teaching mode of the Nursing Basic Technology course, the authors solved the problem of study weariness of vocational college students. Good results were achieved using the new teaching mode.

4.1. The core content of the reform of teaching mode

The key point of the reform of the teaching mode of Nursing Basic Technology is to guide the students to transit from “I do not want to learn” to “I want to learn” and from “I cannot learn” to “I am able to learn”; to develop their ability to exploring knowledge actively and solve actual problems; and to improve their grades. There are many reasons for study weariness, such as the students themselves, teachers, family environment, school management, social facts and so on. This research was designed mainly from the teacher's perspective to solve the problem by changing the teaching patterns in class. The results of this study show that the number of students who were very satisfied with the change was 39 (60.9%), and the number of students who were satisfied with the change was 25 (39.1%). The satisfaction rate was 100%. This fact shows that this method of combining teaching and learning with practicing and theory with practice combines the guiding function of teachers with the leading role of the students, so every step has elements of basic theory and practice. It also makes the students happy when taking the course and increases their interest in and time spent on independent study. At the same time, it improves their skills. It can not only make the students understand and grasp key points when practicing but also enable students to find new questions and new ways of thinking when exploring. It develops the students' integrating ability and the general quality. After finishing the course, the authors administered the same theoretical and practical tests to the experimental and control classes and then evaluated the difference in grades statistically. Table 2 shows that the grades on theory and operation in the experimental class were higher than those of the control class.

4.2. The reform of the teaching mode (teaching, learning with practicing) developed students' initiative and creativity

The goal of designing of teaching pattern before the reform was to learn first, then practice; or to practice first, then learn. Both patterns have one key shortcoming, which is a separation between learning and practicing. Generally speaking, if they are separated, teaching efficiency is very low. The new goal of teaching is to learn and practice at the same time, combining teaching and learning with practicing. To accomplish this, first, the class starts by focusing on assignments. The teacher gives assignments, then guides the students to operate. Finally, the students summarize what they learned. This method is called practicing-learning.7Another method is that the class begins with assignments. They learn and practice at the same time. After several switches between learning and practicing, the students' ability increases. Therefore, they learn much. At the end of the course, the students will perform a new assignment and confirm the theory and what they have learned before. This method is called practice-practice.8For instance, when they are learning blind enema, the teacher first shows an example of abdominal distension after an abdominal operation. Then, the teacher introduces the reason for it, and gives the following assignment: help the patient to reduce the pain of abdominal distension. It allows the students to practice and learn at the same time. After several exchanges of learning and practicing, the students learn the blind enema. Finally, the teacher gives an assignment and asks them to perform the new assignment. The students behave actively and eliminate negative behavior (such as playing with mobile phone) caused by study weariness in class.

4.3. The new teaching mode changes the teaching method of teachers and learning method of students

Nursing Basic Technology has 160 class hours. Theory courses had 80 class hours and practice courses had 80 before teaching reform. The old teaching mode is to learn first, then practice. The theory courses have 40 class hours, and theory-practice courses have 120 after teaching reform. It included 40 programs, and each one combines theory with practice. Taking venous transfusion as an example, the teaching processes are as follows. First, the teacher shows a patient who is on an intravenous drip and briefly introduces the clinical application of infusions. The teacher gives the learning purpose and test and shows the common clinical problem in infusion in the form of case to students. It can develop the students' ability to analyze and solve problems and stimulate students' interests. Second, a single knowledge point should be emphasized as a key point. The method is completed by combining theory with practice, such as intravenous infusions principles, purposes, types, venous transfusion reactions and preventive measures, common problems during infusion and methods to treat, operations and cautions. Third, the students work in pairs and perform a comprehensive exercise, gradually grasping the key points by practicing, become familiar with the method of operation. Finally, the teacher evaluates their learning by testing. The new teaching mode changes six ideas. (1)The course teaching method is moved from lecture to knowledge application. (2)The course teaching method is shifted from theoretical thinking to ability training. (3)The course teaching method is moved from knowledge, concept, principle and logical reasoning to the completion of task. (4)The course teaching method is shifted from passive learning to active learning. (5)Course assessment method is shifted from teaching a lesson well to learning a lesson well. (6)The course teaching method is shifted from lecturing to guiding. The teachers establish the context for learning and let the students have chances to think, speak and do. The new teaching mode completely changes the force-feeding method of teaching.

4.4. Existing problems

There are 40 topics covered in Nursing Basic Technology. Each topic integrates theory with operation. According to the demand for reform, we should have our lessons in the Teaching Training Room, which then needs to incorporate a multimedia system and simulation environment. Only in this way can we carry out teaching reform. Overall, the reform of the teaching mode is achieved. However, there are still some existing problems, such as how to integrate teaching, learning and practicing when pure theoretical teaching is conducted. These studies are not sufficiently profound and will require further study.

Conflicts of interest

All contributing authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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☆This work was supported by a Youth Project in teaching reform project of Hunan province in 2012 (No.ZJC2012004).

*Corresponding author. E-mail address: passhlx@163.com (F.-C. Cai). Peer review under responsibility of Shanxi Medical Periodical Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cnre.2015.02.002