A Study on the Level of Awareness and the Current Performance Level of Self-directed Learning in Nursing Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of awareness and current performance level of self-directed learning (SDL) in nursing students. The core concepts were defined and a rubric was developed through literature review. It was applied later to subjects and the results were analyzed. According to the results, there were significant differences between the current performance level and the awareness level of SDL in all items. Students who chose nursing as a major due to their high school/SAT grades showed lower current performance level than others. There were insignificant differences in the current performance level influencing the next grade. The level of awareness showed insignificant differences according to the reason for selecting nursing as a major, satisfaction on major, and grade point average (GPA). In conclusion, there was a discrepancy between the level of awareness and the current performance level of SDL of nursing students, which indicates that they were aware of the necessity of SDL, but did not actually perform it. Nursing educators should seek for strategies that can improve SDL ability of their students as well as to better grasp the level of the SDL of their student and the current performance level of SDL to apply them to the instructional design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]