Students' perceptions of field experience in professional development: a comparative study.

The movement of the health care and education professions from an apprenticeship model in the early half of the century to the tertiary education sector has brought an awareness of the key role field experience or practicum plays in professional development. The literature has demonstrated that field experience during teacher education and clinical education is a valuable part of preparation for entry into the teaching and nursing professions. The purpose of this study was to compare and contrast the perceptions of final year students from three distinct undergraduate field experiences. Queensland University of Technology students from adult and workplace education, secondary education, and nursing participated in the study. Data were collected through a series of focus group interviews with groups of five to nine participants across the three discipline areas. Students described their expectations of the practical side of their learning and the learning outcomes that eventuated during the practicum.

Undergraduate nursing students' perceptions of their clinical learning environment.

The clinical learning environment (CLE) is an interactive network of forces influencing student learning outcomes in the clinical setting. This study used mixed methods to identify factors characterizing students' perceptions of the CLE. The sample consisted of 229 undergraduate students in the second or third year of their biophysical nursing strand. The five subscales of the Clinical Learning Environment Scale, 'staff-student relationships', 'nurse manager commitment', 'patient relationships', 'student satisfaction' and 'hierarchy and ritual', were supported by qualitative data obtained from student interviews. Interpersonal relationships between the participants in the CLE were crucial to the development of a positive learning environment. Student satisfaction with the CLE was both a result of, and influential in creating, a positive learning environment. Nurse educators, clinical venues, and all others participating in the undergraduate nursing students' clinical education, must collaborate in order to create a CLE which promotes the development of well-educated registered nurses capable of providing safe, cost-effective patient care.

Open-Closed Mindedness and Choice of University Programs.

Comparisons between groups on the basis of dogmatic tendencies are traditionally made on the grounds of summated scores. Given the multidimensionality of the D-Scale, this study explored the possibility of group comparison on an item rather than a summated score basis. The Ss (N = 471: male 250, female 221) were enrolling in various first year university programs. Significant differences did occur in specific items of the D-Scale, and in particular between Ss enrolling in the Arts and the Science programs. Factor analysis of Ss' responses raised the possibility of the significantly different items defining a particular facet or aspect of dogmatism.

Microteaching, feedback, dogmatism, and nonverbal perceptiveness.

This exploratory study examines the relationship between various conditions of feedback in peer microteaching, the personality dimension dogmatism, and nonverbal perceptiveness. Ss were 74 trainee teachers who were assigned to feedback conditions on the basis of dogmatism scores and then participated in a seven-week treatment period. The statistical procedure known as part correlation was used to gain measures of the extent to which Ss changed their nonverbal perceptiveness. This measure of change in nonverbal perceptiveness was related to dogmatic tendencies and feedback conditions. Although no consistent relationship was found to exist between dogmatism and change in nonverbal perceptiveness, there was a strong indication of dogmatic Ss changing their nonverbal perceptiveness when involved in the treatment condition peer microteaching with public feedback.