A longitudinal mixed methods study describing 4th year baccalaureate nursing students' perceptions of inclusive pedagogical strategies.

BACKGROUND: Creating inclusive learning environments-those in which all students thrive-is a priority as nursing educators are charged with preparing a diverse workforce to care for a diverse patient population. Yet, faculty are hindered by a dearth of evidence-based pedagogical strategies to promote inclusion. PURPOSE: This longitudinal mixed methods study uniquely addresses this evidence gap by describing relationships among inclusive pedagogical strategies and student outcomes in 81 4th-year baccalaureate nursing students. METHODS: Across the academic year, students participated in two focus groups and completed surveys at three timepoints on classroom and clinical belongingness, self-confidence and satisfaction with learning, and self-efficacy in the clinical setting. RESULTS: Students' reports of satisfaction and confidence in learning, clinical self-efficacy, and clinical belongingness were significantly higher when they characterized their learning environment as inclusive. Underrepresented students, however, reported significantly lower classroom and clinical belongingness at all three survey timepoints and shared examples of unaddressed breaches in inclusivity which undermined confidence and belongingness. Focus group participants evaluated pedagogical strategies and highlighted faculty's pivotal role in creating inclusive learning environments. CONCLUSION: Inclusive pedagogical strategies may increase students' sense of belongingness, satisfaction and confidence in learning, and self-efficacy. Study results may assist faculty and inform future interventions.

Fourth-Year Baccalaureate Nursing Students' Perceptions of Inclusive Learning Environments.

BACKGROUND: Creating inclusive learning environments is a priority in nursing education, yet faculty are hindered by a dearth of evidence-based inclusive pedagogical strategies. In addition, little is known about students' perceptions of inclusive learning environments. METHOD: Fourth-year baccalaureate nursing students from majority and underrepresented minority groups (n = 13) participated in focus groups at two time points across the academic year. Discussion topics included pedagogical strategies most strongly associated with inclusivity, facilitators and barriers to inclusivity, outcomes of inclusive learning experiences, and recommendations for promoting inclusivity in education and nursing practice. RESULTS: Qualitative content analysis resulted in three themes: 1) underrepresented minority and majority groups described inclusive learning environments differently, 2) every aspect of the learning community affects inclusivity but teachers are especially influential, and 3) the outcomes of an inclusive learning environment extend beyond the classroom. CONCLUSION: These findings may help create inclusive learning environments that support diversity and inclusive excellence in nursing education. [J Nurs Educ. 2020;59(5):256-262.].

The real thing: preschoolers prefer actual activities to pretend ones.

Pretend play is a quintessential activity of early childhood, and adults supply children with many toys to encourage it. Do young children actually prefer to pretend, or do they do it because they are unable to engage in some activities for real? Here we examined, for nine different activities, American middle-class preschoolers' preferences for pretend and real activities. The 100 children we tested (M = 58.5 months, range 36 to 82 months) overwhelmingly preferred real activities to pretend ones, and this preference increased from age 3 to age 4, then remained steady through age 6. Children provided cogent justifications for their preferences. The results are discussed with reference to other domains in which children show reality preferences and with respect to the content of preschool curricula.

How feedback improves children's numerical estimation.

Developmental change in children's number-line estimation has been thought to reveal a categorical logarithmic-to-linear shift in mental representations of number. Some have claimed that the broad and rapid change in estimation patterns that occurs with corrective feedback provides strong evidence for this shift. However, quantitative models of proportion judgment may provide a better account of children's estimation patterns while also predicting broad and rapid change following feedback. Here we test the hypothesis that local corrective feedback provides children with additional reference points, rather than catalyzing a shift to a different mental representation of number. We tested 117 children from several second-grade classrooms in a number-line feedback study. Data indicate that the proportion-judgment framework accounts for individual differences in estimation patterns, and that the effects of feedback are consistent with the unique quantitative predictions of the framework. They do not provide evidence supporting the representational shift hypothesis or, more broadly, for the proposal that cognitive change can occur rapidly at the level of entire mental representations.

Spatial estimation: a non-Bayesian alternative.

A large collection of estimation phenomena (e.g. biases arising when adults or children estimate remembered locations of objects in bounded spaces; Huttenlocher, Newcombe & Sandberg, 1994) are commonly explained in terms of complex Bayesian models. We provide evidence that some of these phenomena may be modeled instead by a simpler non-Bayesian alternative. Undergraduates and 9- to 10-year-olds completed a speeded linear position estimation task. Bias in both groups' estimates could be explained in terms of a simple psychophysical model of proportion estimation. Moreover, some individual data were not compatible with the requirements of the more complex Bayesian model.