Nursing Education and Muddiest Part & In Class Test Strategy
What Is Muddiest Part Strategy and Who Developed It
This strategy was shared with me at a class 1 taught about creative teaching strategies. After some to search, I discovered that Muddiest Part was developed by Mosteller” as a means to assess class learning. The original strategy was called “Muddiest Point. The term denotes the part of a class that students, instructors, or both consider the most confining or complex.
In nursing education, we can often tell when we’ve reached the Muddiest Part. Students shake their heads or look frustrated. You may hear a murmur in the crowd or see students craning their necks to find out whether their neighbor understood something better than they did.
These are sure signs that you’ve reached a Muddiest Part. The next step is to clarify the material. You can do this either through class discussion or by using another creative teaching strategy to present the topic differently
Preparation and Equipment The only preparation needed is a emotivity to the Muddiest Parts of a prepared class. Usually, instructors can predict them and can build in additional time or plan a teaching strategy to allay fears.
Sometimes, however, students may encounter a Muddiest Part when the instructor least expects it. Trachen need to be vigilant for signs of frustration and confusion.
It’s a good idea to peruse your lecture material and try to determine the Muddiest Parts. You can trudge through the mud in advance by planning a creative strategy to reinforce the material. Most experienced nurses and nurse educators remember the small areas of confusion: the neuroendocrine system, ventilator set- rings, interpreting arterial blood gases, calculating vasopressor drips, using chest tubes to treat a pneumothorax the list is endless.
When you see a wave of mud break over the class, step back and clarify. Provide additional information or suggest additional resources to clear up the confusion. To assess the Muddiest Part by watching the class, I look for both verbal and nonverbal cues when discussing complex information.
Implementation of the Muddiest Part Strategy In Nursing Education
Students often feel relieved when they realize that a Muddiest Part also confuses other people.
Ask students to identify the Maddiest Part in a class as an assessment technique. Use Admit Tickets or Exir Tickets, E-mail Exercises, Ah-hah Journals, or Online Discussion Groups to collect these responses. Provide support in subsequent clames by contributing to Online Discussion Groups, posting information no Web-based bulletin boards, or wing other innovative strategies.
If you teach the same content To repeatedly, use Muddiest Parts provide insight for future reaching experiences.
In Class Test Questions Strategy In Nursing Education
General Description Nursing students, especially senior getting up for NCLEX-RN, are very responsive to test questions scattered throughout a lecture. New nurses in orientation groups benefit from intermittent testing of skills. Experienced nurses especially those taking objective examinations for certification or course completion appreciate revisiting multiple choice test items.
What better way to brush up on test-taking skills! In this strategy, the instructor inserts appropriate test questions in the lecnite. In class Test Questions help you assess the class, help the class determine what they know, and provide an opportunity to practice testing skills.
Preparation and Equipment All you need to do is develop test questions based on the lecture or discussion material. Questions may be placed in PowerPoint format. Animation may be added-for example, you can use an arrow to pinpoint, enlarge, or highlight the correct answer.
It’s important to remove the arrows, or anything that gives away the correct answer, before providing handouts. The students aren’t supposed to have the answers in their notes! Present a question every 15 minutes or so to coincide with a learner’s usual attention span Example of the Strategy at Work This strategy is one of the most common ones I use for brief diversions during class. In class Test Questions also provide transition points to new topics of discussion.
In-class Test Questions are a great way to reinforce material and provide breaks in a lecture or discussion. This strategy comes with some cautions:
Make sure the In-class Test Questions match the difficulty level of the examination questions. Students will feel overconfident and be misled if the questions am too easy. Overly difficult questions will frustrate and intimidate them Use questions from previous examinations to show the students what your testing style is like and what level of difficulty to стрест.
Use as many application and analysis questions as possible You’ll be asking students to make a leap from simple retention to actual use of their knowledge. For example, here is a retention question:
Implementation of In Class Test Strategy In Nursing Education
Have students develop their own test questions. Coro posing questions is a great way to study and brings home the difficulty of test construction. Use a Twosies exercise have students develop questions and switch with their partners. Ask the class to post their questions to an Online Discussion.
Alternatively, have students’ hand in questions as Admit Tickets and tell them you might we their questions on the examination. You’ll be giving the class a way to prepare and to participate in evaluation. These questions may also be useful for test review and may sessions.
Encourage students to use them in study groups (self Learning from Each Other). Experience has taught me that students develop hard test questions! You may need to revise them for the examination.
During Student led Seminars, have students compose sets question and write them on an index card. You can ask these questions after the seminar to evaluate class participation and attentiveness. Again. you may find yourself selecting questions to use on an examination.
Have students post their questions and answers with rationales to an Online Discussion. Not only can you use the questions for test development, but students can use them to study for the examination. A colleague provides extra credit to students whose questions were actually used for the examination.
Hand out electronic clickers (or ask students to purchase them) to use in answering questions. Clickers are also good for taking attendance, conducting quizzes, and assessing knowledge. Personal response systems or “clickers” allow students to answer questions in PowerPoint and provide the instructor with some assessment of the class’s level of comprehension.
In-class Test Questions can come from textbooks, test hanks. and nursing examination review books.
Give the class a solid foundation for the NCLEX examination. One student told me about “NCLEX World,” where nurses have endless amounts of time, money, and resources to accomplish their tasks. This concept helps students select the correct action without considering constraints. Of course, in Neal clinical practice, resources are finite and nurses must often make some changes in their nursing care, still staying within the basic para- meters of client safety, benefit, and respect.
Nursing examinations typically offer four correct answers. Students often find it frustrating to have to select the best, first, or highest nursing priority. In-class Test Questions help them practice these skills in the classroom.
When using In-class Test Questions, make sure you cover the correct answer with rationales and discuss the reasons the others are incorrect. Students often find review of the incorrect answers a great learning experience.
Encourage the question “What do you think they II ask about this topic on the examination?” Students often have a difficult time anticipating and differentiating priorities. Using questions on a regular basis will foster those skills
Give your students a test blueprint or guide. If they know the number of superstations per topic, clan objective, or hour of class, they can study according to those parameter
One seasoned nursing instructor recommends posting a test question on the board during a class break. Whether written, on an overhead slide, or in PowerPoint, the questions are reviewed when the class reconvenes. Because these questions may, or may not. appear on an examination, students are encouraged to rum from the class break promptly.
For more information on test construction and administration, see Oermann and Gaberson.
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