Ref Election Paper No. 2

Jaclyn Ann S. Cardenas C.R.T. R.N. St. Paul University Manila As a future nurse educator, it is important to identify the philosophy of education to be used in order to be an effective nursing instructor . So I personally chose Behaviorism and Cognitivism/Constructivism by Vygotsky. I chose these philosophies because it matches the same scheme of how my mentors educated me. And I believe that these philosophies are very effective to induce effective learning to students. Behaviorists theorists believe that behavior is shaped deliberately by forces in the environment and that the type of person and actions desired. In other words, behavior is determined by others, rather than by our own free will. By carefully shaping desirable behavior, morality and information is learned. Learners will acquire and remember responses that lead to satisfying effects. By repetition of meaningful connections it will result in learning. Motivation to learn is the satisfying effect or reinforcement. An example is my two year old daughter. Every morning I gather her books, set up a play mat and I ask her to reading and story telling session while she pays attention. As an end result, each morning she calls me and yell “Mommy, I want my book “. It has become a routine environment as well as the formation of her desirable behavior. My daughter became advance for her age. As a 2 year old toddler she can sing the ABC and count 1 to 12. On the other hand Cognitivists or Constructivists believe that the learner actively constructs his or her own understandings of reality through interaction with objects, events, and people in the environment, and reflecting on these interactions. For learning to occur, an event, object, or experience must conflict with what the learner already knows. Motivation to learn is experiencing conflict with what one knows, which causes an imbalance, which triggers a quest to restore the equilibrium. The learner organizes his or her understanding in organized structures. I believe this philosophy induces critical thinking and problem solving. Nurses are always facing ethical conflicts and dilemmas on an everyday basis. It’s of extreme importance for nurses to become a critical thinkers and problem solvers. Example is a Head Nurse prioritizing, delegating and assigning task or patients to RNs against the LPNs. My personal philosophy of motivation, and critical thinking are the essentials component to effectively educated nursing student. As a future Nurse Educator it is not only that we are supposed to be good in theory and nursing skills. We should also promote an effective and the best teaching method. Their should be adequate mental stimulating activities combine with an ideal learning environment. Based on this drawn philosophies, my vision of the future of education in the Philippines is very promising. I am very hopeful that students given the right mind set and ideal environment for learning they will excel on their field of study. It’s always never too late. for an educator. There should be a never ending patience and interest on everyday learning. We can always get student to developed interest and discipline. At the same time trained them to use their mind for analytical and critical exercise. These processes will set their state of mind into right psyche. An mind set for information processing and inputs. End result is a competent and a knowledgeable student, a future teacher or a leader.