'Poetry in motion' a place in the classroom: Using poetry to develop writing confidence and reflective skills

Creating and Using Poetry to Teach Theoretical and Conceptual Nursing Content

ABSTRACT

In nursing academia, educators are faced with the longstanding challenge of bridging the theory-practice gap. In a second-year nursing theory course, students were introduced to poetry on a biweekly basis, written by their educator in response to student needs in understanding complex theoretical and conceptual nursing topics. Through anecdotal evidence from clinical instructors and students, the sharing of poetry and subsequent discussions helped students to develop and enhance their critical thinking and clinical judgment, reasoning, and decision-making skills. This transformative pedagogical approach offers an alternative teaching strategy that can provide the basis for meaningful discussion and bridge the theory-practice gap.

Methods and strategies to promote academic literacies in health professions: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

Universities enroll students from diverse backgrounds every year, with 300 million students expected in higher education by 2025. However, with widening participation, increasing numbers of students enrolling in higher health education and future health professions will be underprepared to meet demands of academic literacies, i.e. ability to read, interpret and critically evaluate academic texts and communicating the understanding verbally or in writing. The aim of this scoping review was to describe and explore methods and strategies to promote development of academic literacies.

RESULTS

Thirty-one relevant studies were included and analyzed according to scoping review guidelines. The results showed four strategies: (1) integrating learning activities to develop academic literacies in the regular curriculum, (2) changing the course design with new methods for teaching and learning, (3) establish collaborations amongst academics and librarian faculty, and (4) adding courses or foundation year focusing on development of academic literacies. The results are discussed in light of the United Nations Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development, Goal 4, Quality Education, and widening participation.

CONCLUSIONS

Aspects of widening participation and inclusion in higher education have been debated, and increasing numbers of students from diverse backgrounds are expected to enter health studies in higher education. We encourage integration of teaching and learning activities targeting parallel learning of course materials and development of academic literacies, beyond study skills. Embracing epistemic complexity and diversity as well as choosing strategic work with academic literacies may provide a starting point toward realizing sustainable development goals and widening participation.