Creative Pedagogy: A Practical Framework for Teaching Research Methods

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this presentation is to provide a practical, organizing framework to facilitate teaching and learning of research design to graduate students. The framework provides user-friendly and logical organization of the relationships among concepts in context of research designs in incremental fashion, highlighting examples for application to nursing practice. Examples for teaching research design will be presented with application to practice, scholarly projects, and other professional endeavors.

METHODS: The framework was designed for teaching and learning research methods, incrementally and logically, to facilitate progression of knowledge acquisition through application and synthesis, application needed for adult learners, and integrating appropriate graphic design principles. The framework has been used in instruction of MSN, DNP, and PhD students.

RESULTS: The framework has been used successfully with students (N=1,451) in five universities by four faculty members (M=9 years teaching topic; range 6-14 years). Evaluations have been positive, and student learning successful. Quantitative evaluations and narrative comments regarding student evaluation of the framework will be presented. Themes in narrative comments include: appreciation of graphics use, and that the framework helped to make sense of dense material.

DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: The framework has been demonstrated as a successful pedagogical tool in teaching and learning research methods. Teaching research to the level that students can grasp the foundational language of research, synthesize, and apply the information in their courses, practice, and other scholarly endeavors, requires user-friendly information, with an organized, systematic approach that this framework provides. The framework will be useful for educators and students in teaching and learning research language, relationships, and application of methods. Teaching research methods effectively to graduate students is critical to meet the expectation that students are to understand the scientific underpinnings of nursing science and appropriate use of evidence that are essential for well-educated practitioners.