Developing a didactic method that emphasizes lifeworld as a basis for learning
The learning process in a professional education is characterized by the encounter between the student's own lifeworld and scientific knowledge in theory and in practice. Didactics is needed in order to be able to provide support for this meeting and create the conditions for a reflective process that strengthens the integration between the lifeworld and theoretical and practical knowledge. This paper presents an innovative research project where the aim was to develop a new didactic method in nursing education that makes it possible for the student to encounter both the theoretical caring science structure and the patient's lived experiences in his/her learning process. A reflective group supervision model for nursing students during clinical studies was developed and tested for the duration of two years. A teacher and a nurse led each group. The supervision started in patient narratives the students collected during their clinical practices and brought to the supervision sessions. The narratives were problematized and analysed in the supervision session using caring science terminology with the purpose of creating a unity of theory and lived experiences, thus developing a deeper understanding for the patient's situation and need. During the project, data were collected and analysed phenomenologically in order to develop knowledge of the students' reflection and learning when using the supervision model. The result shows that the students, with the help of this didactic method, have developed a better understanding of the patient and that they have had good use of the theoretical caring science in creating this understanding. They have learned to reflect more systematically and the examination has become more realistic to them as it is now carried out in a patient context. However, in order to reach these results some prerequisites are required. These can be summarized as the necessity of recognizing the students' lifeworld in the supervision process.
Keywords: caring science; lifeworld theory; nursing training; pedagogic/didactics; reflection; supervision
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: School of Health Sciences and Social Work, Vaxjo University, Vaxjo, Sweden
Publication date: 01 February 2009
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