Background: In the Netherlands, the distinction between Bachelor degree and diploma nursing educational levels remains unclear. The added value of Bachelor degree nurses and how they develop professionally after graduation are subject to debate. Objectives: The aim of this study is to investigate whether Bachelor degree nurses have higher critical thinking skills than diploma nurses do and whether there is a positive relationship between higher critical thinking skills and self-efficacy beliefs. Outcomes might provide instruments that are helpful in positioning of nursing levels in education and practice. Participants: Questionnaire data were used of a sample of 95 registered mental health staff nurses (62 diploma nurses and 33 Bachelor degree nurses). Methods: First, ANOVAwas performed to testwhether the two groupswere comparablewith respect to elements of work experience. Second, t-tests were conducted to compare the two groups of nurses on self-efficacy, perceived performance and critical thinking outcomes. Third, relationships between the study variables were investigated. Finally, structural equation modelling using AMOS was applied to test the relationships. Results: The hypothesis that Bachelor degree nurses are better critical thinkers than diploma nurseswas supported (pb0.01). Years in function turned out to be positively related to self-efficacy beliefs (pb0.01). No significant relation was found between the level of education and self-efficacy beliefs. Conclusions: The results of this study support career development and facilitate more efficient positioning of nursing levels.
Earlier research argues that educational programmes based on social cognitive theory are successful in improving students’ self-efficacy. Focusing on some formative assessment characteristics, this qualitative research intends to study in-depth how student teachers’ assessment experiences contribute to their self-efficacy. We interviewed 15 second year student teachers enrolled in a competence based teacher educational programme. Thematic content analysis results reveal that the assessment characteristics ‘authenticity’ and ‘feedback’ exert a positive influence on student teachers self-efficacy during all phases of the portfolio competence assessment. The results provide a fine-grained view of several types of self-efficacy information connected with these assessment phases.
This study explores how 33 student teachers’ reflections during 106 ‘bumpy moments’ while in an international student teaching internship reveal their professional beliefs, and how the moments make the student teachers reflect upon their subjective educational theories. Student teachers described four themes of professional beliefs: (1) pedagogical content knowledge, (2) school context, (3) organisational skills and (4) self-reflection. Their reflections highlighted aspects of their subjective educational theories when they perceived they lacked an appropriate practical teaching strategy or they had pedagogical interactions with pupils or supervisors. The student teachers’ reflections on pedagogical interactions in a cross-cultural context made them aware of moral dimensions in teaching and their own position during normative (inter)actions. The findings of this study indicate that teacher educators should focus on everyday teaching details that occur during bumpy moments in a student’s teaching practice to explicate larger concepts such as the student teachers’ beliefs.
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