Improvement of learning domains of nursing students with the use of authentic assessment pedagogy in clinical practice.

ABSTRACT

With evolving healthcare demands, nursing educators need to constantly review their teaching methodologies in order to enhance learners' knowledge and competency of skills in the clinical settings. Learning is an active process in which meaning is accomplished on the basis of experience and that authentic assessment pedagogy will enable nursing students to play an active part in their learning. The study was conducted with an aim to examine nursing students' learning domains through the introduction of the authentic assessment pedagogy during their clinical practice. A quasi-experimental study (n = 54) was conducted over a period of 10 weeks at a local tertiary hospital. The experimental group was exposed to the authentic assessment pedagogy and were taught to use the assessment rubrics as an instrument to help enhance their learning. Students were assessed and scored according to the assessment rubrics, which were categorized into four domains; cognitive, psychomotor, affective and critical thinking abilities. The findings indicated that an overall score for the four domains between the experimental and control groups were significant, with p value of <0.05. Critical thinking scores were indicative of consistent improvement within the experimental group. The findings confirmed that learning outcomes of the nursing students were enhanced through the early introduction of the authentic assessment pedagogy in the clinical setting.