PERCEPTIONS OF TEACHING BEHAVIORS AND TEACHER CHARACTERISTICS IN CLINICAL NURSING SETTINGS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ASSOCIATE DEGREE AND BACCALAUREATE DEGREE NURSING STUDENTS AND FACULTY

This study compared the perceptions of Associate Degree (A.D.N.) and Baccalaureate Degree (B.S.N.) nursing students and faculty concerning teaching behaviors and teacher characteristics in clinical nursing settings. The Clinical Teacher Behavior and Characteristic (CTBC) Questionnaire, consisting of 94 items, was developed for use in this study and was administered to a total of 565 A.D.N. and B.S.N. respondents. Both descriptive and inferential statistical procedures were used to analyze group responses. Items were mean-rank ordered according to respondent groups tested. Generally, respondents in both A.D.N. and B.S.N. programs identified: (a) professional nursing competencies, (b) interpersonal relationship skills, and (c) evaluation methods as the most effective teaching behaviors in clinical nursing settings. Least effective items included those associated with: (a) personal attributes, (b) instructional methods, and (c) theoretical orientation. Significant differences were disclosed by ANOVA in testing the six null hypotheses and led to the rejection of five null hypotheses at the .05 level of significance. Both A.D.N. and B.S.N. faculty tended to assign stronger levels of agreement to the teaching behaviors than did students; the student groups demonstrated closer agreement to each other than to their respective faculties. The B.S.N. faculty assigned greater importance to items centering on theoretical approaches and interpersonal skills than did the A.D.N. faculty. In addition to the significant differences found among A.D.N. and B.S.N. respondent groups, the findings suggested that there may be differences in perceptions of clinical teaching behaviors associated with where the faculty's basic nursing education occurred, that is, diploma schools, A.D.N., or B.S.N. programs. The total sample estimate of reliability-internal consistency for the CTBC questionnaire was .96, suggesting that the instrument has the potential for accurately assessing respondents' opinions in future studies of this nature.