Philosophy in Action

 

Philosophy in Action: Student Perspectives and Impact

An educator’s philosophy is most meaningful when reflected in the experiences of their students. This section highlights how teaching principles come to life, showcasing student feedback that demonstrates the impact of an engaging and supportive learning environment. Through their insights, you’ll see a commitment to shaping an experience that challenges and inspires, helping students build the confidence, clinical reasoning, and clinical judgment essential for their journey and growth in nursing.

 

Climate

The following examples from teaching evaluations highlight the impact of fostering a learning environment grounded in mutual respect, collaboration, and diversity. By cultivating professional and collegial relationships, students feel valued, supported, and motivated to fully engage in their educational experience.

  • “… approachable and respectful. He always keeps his door open and he is willing to support you as needed.”
  • “He provided a positive way of thinking …”
  • “… always offers to not move on until we are sure we understand a concept he is reviewing.”
  • “Patient when answering questions.”
  • “I know I said my fair share of ignorant things and whether it was intentional or not, he facilitated my learning by incorporating the items I had complained about in lectures. I mentioned my distaste for Leininger’s Transcultural Nursing textbook and afterwards, he mentioned [the theory] a few times in class and that helped me shift my perspective of it. I have a lot of respect and appreciation for instructors who can shift perspectives without triggering people’s defenses to criticism.”
  • “If someone asked a question that highlighted a lack in their understanding, he always approached it in a kind and professional way which I think kept the door open for learning.”
  • “He showed empathy and compassion. He has always encouraged me to keep going even when I felt like giving up. To this day, I still find great motivation in him. Very friendly and quick to react to my questions.”
  • “Dr. E is great, he is caring and compassionate and professional and funny and his love of teaching really shows. He really stands by what he said when he said he teaches to where people are at, no matter what their learning style is.”
  • “The qualities of the professor that I found helpful and positive are kind, respectful, and doesn’t judge. I like his constructive criticism because it helps students to reflect and correct their mistakes. I also like that the professor makes the class fun and engaging. I can honestly say this class is not boring.”

 

Strategy

The following examples highlight students’ experiences with intentional and creative teaching strategies that enhance learning, promote critical thinking, and strengthen clinical reasoning and judgment. These approaches actively engage students in applied learning, connecting theoretical knowledge to real-world nursing practice and fostering the skills necessary for professional growth.

Diverse Teaching Methods for Different Learning Styles

The use of multiple teaching approaches ensures engagement and accessibility for students with different learning preferences.

  • “He was able to explain concepts in a variety of ways to make it more understandable. He always tried to make sure we all seemed to grasp the ideas he was teaching. He utilized many different methods of teaching to reach many different learning styles—he would lecture, use graphics, and try to show certain concepts by having a student move a particular way, etc.”
  • “His style is fresh, entertaining, and engaging. I liked learning via case studies, and Prof. Emmons always presented a variety of ways to organize and present information to the class.”
  • “Lectures were engaging and grabbed your attention, it was a class that all students were mentally engaged and stimulated in.”

Structured & Organized Learning

Students value clear expectations, organization, and structured guidance, which facilitate deeper learning and preparedness.

  • “The professor is very organized in all the assignments, lessons, and activities. He is always prepared for class and he provides great assistance in guiding us towards learning about the topics in the class.”
  • “The professor is very organized and prepared in all classes. He is a good leader and professor. Not only has he taught us important knowledge and skills but he also motivates and inspires us.”
  • “His decision to have the templates be due BEFORE class was a smart one. It ensures that students are at least somewhat familiar with that week’s material before going into lecture.”
  • “Dr. Emmons is an enthusiastic educator, you can see all of the time and effort he puts into his lecture preparation, and class time is always engaging.”

Active Learning

Students appreciate the use of case studies, real-world applications, and problem-solving activities that move beyond memorization to deeper understanding. Students benefit from pre-class preparation and in-class reinforcement through interactive activities. Using stories, anecdotes, and clinical examples helps students retain information, connect content to practice, and focus on safe and effective care.

  • “I believe that presenting class material in a case study format solidified the application of knowledge and challenged us to dig for the deeper understanding of why and how a disease or illness presents, progresses, and is managed.”
  • “He pushed us to go beyond the textbook information and begin to utilize critical thinking and clinical judgment within the classroom setting by going through case studies.”
  • “If this class followed the traditional teaching style, I don’t think I would know anything. This class is more about applying concepts instead of memorization, which is ultimately the goal for us.”
  • “I always appreciate when professors include anecdotes that accompany class content. I know that isn’t a requirement, but it definitely connects the content to real-life application and helps in (at least for me) the overall learning process.”
  • “I really appreciated when he would provide pre-lecture information that would create a baseline for our lesson that week, and then in class, have case study examples that we, as a class, would work through to promote the application of the information we learned before.”
  • “I liked that our lectures were recorded so that I could watch them on my own time for review.”
  • “When he told stories about things that were related to what we were learning in that class, it was interesting and valuable to me because it helped me to remember that scenario.”
  • “I also found some of the stories valuable because they taught me to not make those same mistakes if the story included learning aspects.
  • “I really appreciated when he would provide pre-lecture information that would create a baseline for our lesson that week, and then in class, have case study examples that we, as a class, would work through to promote the application of the information we learned before.”
  • “I liked that our lectures were recorded so that I could watch them on my own time for review.”

 

Growth

A commitment to continuous growth in teaching requires ongoing reflection, responsiveness to student feedback, and adaptation of instructional methods to enhance learning experiences. The following examples illustrate how student feedback shaped improvements in course design, instructional delivery, and assessment strategies to foster engagement, improve accessibility, provide clarity, and promote learning.

Refining Course Content for Clarity and Accessibility

  • “The amount of material (though needed) was at times overwhelming.”

Reflection and Action for Improvement: Streamlined course content to provide more concise materials while offering supplemental resources in the online course shell for students who wanted additional depth.

  • “Some of the PowerPoints were not easy to download onto other devices (i.e. downloading to an iPad), if possible, for next semester, can you please make the PowerPoints into a PDF format?”

Reflection and Action for Improvement: Reformatted all presentations into multiple file types (PDF, PowerPoint) to ensure accessibility across devices.

Enhancing Instructional Delivery and Engagement

  • “Sometimes, Dr. Emmons can go off on a tangent with his own experiences. It’s great and all, but sometimes it can be excessive.”

Reflection and Action for Improvement: I am trying to become more mindful of staying on topic while maintaining engaging storytelling that reinforces learning without unnecessary deviation.

  • “Try to shorten lectures a little. Sometimes we ran over class time.”
  • “Give more than a 5-minute break to prevent information overload.”

Reflection and Action for Improvement: Implementing structured breaks to improve retention and adjusted lecture content to reinforce learning efficiently without redundancy.

Strengthening Clinical Application and Integration

  • “The least interesting part [clinical] is making the care plans.”

Reflection and Action for Improvement: Redesigned care plans to transition from a long, labor-intensive process to a real-time data collection and analysis model. Added self-reflection components to encourage critical analysis of clinical judgment and decision-making. Updated didactic materials to align classroom language with clinical practice, ensuring consistency and translation of knowledge into real-world application.

Expanding NCLEX NGN Preparation

  • “The only thing I’d do different is more practice with the bow tie–styled questions in class since there are a good amount of them on the exams.”
  • “I would say start using more exam-style questions like bowties.”

Reflection and Action for Improvement: Integrated additional NGN-style alternative format questions into class activities to reinforce familiarity and application of clinical reasoning.

Enhancing Active Learning with Reinforcement Tools

  • “Provide an optional pre-lecture and post-lecture 10-question quiz.”
  • “Introduce weekly quizzes, mandatory or optional—to reinforce material and nursing exemplar templates.

Reflection and Action for Improvement: Developed optional online quizzes with immediate feedback and detailed rationales to reinforce understanding and clarify misconceptions.

Providing Clearer Guidance on Learning Tools

  • “I don’t know how to use the templates to actually study and for exams.”

Reflection and Action for Improvement: Redesigned learning templates to include a condensed summary on one side and expanded explanations on the back. Developed a guidebook to provide structured navigation and application strategies for effective study and exam preparation.