The views of nurse educators of assessment strategies used at a private nursing education institution in South Africa
Date
2020
Authors
Reyneck, Precious
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Abstract
Assessment strategies are a critical aspect of teaching and learning. Despite research by many authors both nationally and internationally on assessment strategies, little is known about the views of nurse educators on assessment strategies in the private nursing education institution in South Africa. The overall impression based on anecdotal evidence, indicates that there is a lack of assessment literacy amongst educators and that educators are not well supported with regards to the facilitation of the assessment processes. Little is known, however, about the opinions of nurse educators involved in the implementation of policy on assessment strategies. This study is part of a growing body of research that seeks to find information regarding the views of nurse educators on assessment strategies and to use this information to improve the educational process.
The aim of the study was to establish the views of the nurse educators on the relevance and effectiveness of assessment strategies at a private nursing education institution in South Africa.
A qualitative, exploratory design was used to collect data from nurse educators currently employed at the various campuses of a private nursing education institution by means of semi-structured interviews. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim, and the data analysed using thematic content analysis by Braun and Clarke.
The findings of this study revealed that the assessment processes are driven by policy which is developed by management and nurse educators are required to follow these policies leaving little room for autonomy related to decision making regarding assessments and assessment strategy. Part of this problem relates to the fact that the students write summative examinations set by the SA Nursing Council and not by the institution itself. There was a general concern relating to the lack of time for designing and administering assessments and also a shortage of human resources for the tasks related to assessment. This leads to questionable practices, such as recycling test papers. Classroom assessments were used almost exclusively as a form of assessing the student nurses, rather than for development purposes. The findings of the study also suggested that participants do little to involve learners in the development of assessments and that assessments are largely based on the lower levels of the cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy. There was an ever-present concern regarding the need to prepare students for external examinations by the SANC, which may hamper the quality of teaching and learning
Description
A research report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Science in Nursing to the Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Therapeutic Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2020