(345)AN INVESTIGATION ON READINESS FOR SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING AND ITS INFLUENCING FACTORS AMONG CHINESE UNDERGRADUATE NURSING STUDENTS

摘要

Higher education in nursing should prepare nursing graduates with the capability to take on theincreasingly challenging roles required of the nursing profession. Nursing graduates are expected tobe responsible for their personal and professional development. They are expected to engage in selfdirectedlearning through identifying human and material resources, identifying their own learningneeds, setting goals, choosing learning strategies, and evaluating results of the learning process.Nursing education institutions should add the development of self-directed learners to their mission.Students with low readiness for self-directed learning (SDL)may prefer more teacher-led discussionand lectures rather than independent learning with anxiety. Nursing educators should assess students’readiness for SDL in order to implement suitable teaching methods.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe Chinese undergraduate nursing students’readiness for SDL and its influencing factors.Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 536 randomized Chinese nursingstudents. The Self-directed learning Readiness (SDLR)scale for nursing education (Chinesetranslation version)was used. The value of the content validity index tested by five experts was 0.915.A measure of internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha)was 0.925 in total scale.Results: The response rate was 90.5%. More than half of students have been involved in small grouplearning (82.1%), SDL (61.4%)or PBL (61.2%). The mean overall score of SDLR was 157.72 (S.D. =15.08). The factors, including academic years, experience in small group learning, SDL, or problembasedlearning, significantly influenced the scores of SDLR.Conclusion: Promoting SDL is a challenging process for faculty members and students. Nurseeducators should assess students’ characteristics and learning experience in order to determine theappropriateness of SDL and modify the instruction for students. This finding also indicated thematurational process of developing SDL.