Teaching Strong Nurses to Teach: Adult Learning, Bandura's Social Learning Theory and Tanner's Clinical Judgment Model Chosen for a Preceptor Development Program
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
NSG/531: Program and Course Development
Week 2 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The hospital, its staff and the program are a composite written for a model paper.
In Week 1, a needs assessment traced high first-year turnover among new graduate nurses to a gap in preceptor preparation. Experienced medical-surgical nurses were teaching mainly by demonstration, gave little specific feedback and had no structure for tracking progress. This paper chooses the theories that will guide a preceptor development program for these nurses.
Two Questions the Theory Must Answer
A preceptor program involves two layers of learning. The first is how the preceptors themselves will learn the skills of precepting. The second is what they will be teaching their orientees, and how. The needs assessment showed that the second layer is where precepting was weakest: preceptors showed orientees what to do but rarely drew out their thinking. So the program needs a theory of adult learning for the preceptors and a model of clinical thinking that preceptors can use with orientees.
Comparing the Main Approaches
Behaviorism, with its focus on observable behavior shaped by reinforcement, fits specific skills such as giving feedback in a set structure, but it says little about the judgment preceptors need to adapt to different orientees.
Cognitivism, with its focus on mental structures and information processing, fits the need for a clear framework, such as a model of how clinical judgment develops, but knowing a framework does not ensure preceptors use it at the bedside.
Constructivism, with its view that learners build understanding from experience and reflection, fits a program in which preceptors reflect on their own precepting, but on its own it can be slow and unstructured.
Adult learning principles hold that adults bring experience that should be used, want learning relevant to current problems, prefer to direct parts of their learning and want to apply it right away (Knowles et al., 2015). These fit the learners closely: experienced, practical nurses who are proud of their skill and short on time.
Choice 1: Adult Learning Principles for How Preceptors Learn
The program will treat preceptors as experienced professionals who already know a great deal about teaching, because every nurse teaches patients and families. Sessions will start from the preceptors' own experiences, including their memories of their own orientation, and will address problems they named in the Week 1 survey: giving feedback without discouraging, telling whether an orientee is progressing and managing time.
Choice 2: Bandura's Social Learning Theory for Modeling
Bandura (1977) argued that much human learning happens by observing others and that four processes shape it: the learner must attend to the model, keep what was seen in memory, be able to reproduce it and have a reason to do so. Precepting is itself social learning; orientees learn to be nurses largely by watching their preceptors, which makes what preceptors model as important as what they say. The theory also shapes how preceptors will learn. They will watch short demonstrations of effective coaching, practice in role-plays and receive feedback, which follows Bandura's sequence.
Social learning theory also explains a finding from Week 1. Preceptors who were never precepted well themselves tend to repeat what they experienced, teaching by doing and criticizing in public. Modeling better precepting is how the program interrupts that pattern.
Choice 3: Tanner's Clinical Judgment Model for What Preceptors Teach
Tanner (2006), synthesizing research on clinical judgment, described four aspects of how nurses think in practice: noticing, interpreting, responding and reflecting. The model gives preceptors a structure for coaching. Instead of saying "Your patient's pressure is low, so hold the metoprolol," a preceptor can ask, "What did you notice when you took his vital signs? What do you think it means? What will you do? How did it go?" This makes the orientee's reasoning visible and lets the preceptor correct it.
How the Theories Shape Specific Design Decisions
Decision 1: the program begins with a structured reflection in which preceptors describe their own first year, drawing on adult learning's use of experience and on the account of transition shock by Duchscher (2009) to name what they went through.
Decision 2: every new skill is modeled before it is practiced. The educator and an experienced preceptor demonstrate coaching with Tanner's questions, then preceptors practice in pairs, following Bandura's sequence.
Decision 3: feedback is taught as a behavior with a fixed structure, specific observation, effect and next step, and practiced until it is automatic, borrowing from behaviorism for a skill that benefits from consistency.
Decision 4: preceptors leave with a pocket card of clinical judgment questions, a cognitive tool they can use at the bedside under time pressure.
Decision 5: after the workshop, preceptors meet monthly in small groups to discuss real precepting problems, which supports reflection and keeps motivation high.
Why Not One Theory Alone
It would be simpler to choose a single theory, and some programs do. Adult learning principles alone would produce a respectful, relevant workshop but would not say how coaching skills should be demonstrated and practiced. Social learning theory alone would guide modeling and practice but would not give preceptors a framework for what to coach. Tanner's model alone would describe clinical thinking but not how experienced nurses learn to teach it. The needs assessment found three problems, how preceptors are prepared, how they teach and what they teach, and each chosen theory addresses one. Using three theories is justified only because each has a distinct job; adding more would blur the design without adding anything the program needs.
What This Means for the Orientees
The theories chosen for preceptors also reach the new graduates. When a preceptor asks an orientee what she noticed and what she thinks it means, the orientee practices the clinical reasoning Tanner described. When the preceptor thinks aloud, the orientee observes a model, which is social learning at work in the orientation itself. And when the preceptor builds the week's plan with the orientee, the orientee is treated as an adult learner with her own goals. The program therefore teaches preceptors in the same way it wants them to teach.
Theory and the Preceptors' Motivation
Bandura's fourth process, motivation, deserves particular attention here, since 17 preceptors said they would not precept again. The program will build motivation by showing preceptors the effect of their work through recent orientees' stories, by recognizing the role publicly and by making precepting easier through tools and support.
Limits
Social learning theory depends on good models, and the program has few experienced, trained preceptors to serve as them at first; the educator and two experienced preceptors from the lowest-turnover unit will fill that role. Tanner's model describes clinical judgment well, but using it to coach takes practice, and the program must give preceptors repeated chances to try it.
Conclusion
Adult learning principles will shape how preceptors learn, Bandura's social learning theory will shape how coaching is modeled and practiced, and Tanner's clinical judgment model will give preceptors a structure for drawing out their orientees' thinking. Each theory has a defined job in the program's design. Week 3 will align the program with the standards that govern it.
References
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Prentice Hall.
Duchscher, J. E. B. (2009). Transition shock: The initial stage of role adaptation for newly graduated registered nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(5), 1103-1113. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2008.04898.x
Knowles, M. S., Holton, E. F., III, & Swanson, R. A. (2015). The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development (8th ed.). Routledge.
Tanner, C. A. (2006). Thinking like a nurse: A research-based model of clinical judgment in nursing. Journal of Nursing Education, 45(6), 204-211. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20060601-04
How this NSG 531 Week 2 example is structured
The NSG/531 description asks learners to evaluate theories of teaching and learning. This paper evaluates the main families of theory against the learners and gap found in Week 1, chooses theories for two different jobs, how preceptors learn and how they will coach orientees, and traces specific design decisions to each theory. Students search this week as NSG 531 Week 2, NSG531 Wk 2 or NSG/531 Wk 2; all three are the same assignment.
NSG/531 Week 2 questions, answered
What does NSG/531 Week 2 usually ask for?
The course description includes evaluating theories of teaching and learning. Many sections ask students to compare learning theories and choose those that fit their program and learners, with reasons.
What is social learning theory?
Bandura's theory that people learn by observing others, especially models they respect, and by practicing with feedback. It emphasizes attention, retention, reproduction and motivation.
How does Tanner's clinical judgment model help preceptors?
It describes how nurses notice, interpret, respond and reflect, which gives preceptors a structure for asking questions that make an orientee's thinking visible.
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