The Effect of Teaching Uning a Blend of Collaborative and Mastery of Learning Models, on Learning of Vital Signs: An Experiment onNursing and Operation Room Students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences

Educational system is a set of plans, approaches, and materials which coordinately facilitate learners’ access to pedagogical objectives. With regard to the fact that each step of knowledge acquisition calls for a particular learning method or a specific approach, it might be possible to ease students’ achievement of learning objectives by using a blend of learning strategies. This study aimed to determine the effects of blended teaching models on learning of vital signs among nursing and operation room students.

This was a quasi-experimental, with before and after-research design performed on two groups. All first semester nursing and operation room students (N=52) were selected for the study. They were randomly allocated into two groups of experiment and control and were instructed using blended and traditional education methods. Before and after each session of education, academic achievement tests were applied to evaluate students’ cognitive learning in three levels of knowledge, comprehension, and application regarding the topic of vital signs. Data was analyzed using t-test, Wilcoxon, Mann Whitney, and Fisher’s exact test.

Both teaching methods improved students’ learning in knowledge, comprehension, and application levels. Mean differences before and after education in both groups were statistically significant in all levels. The mean of increase in scores in all exams and sessions were significantly higher in the blended teaching group compared to the traditional one. The mean score of students’ satisfaction in experiment group(66.2±19.5) was significantly (p<.001) different from the control(38.9±21.4).

The used blend of teaching methods was more effective than the traditional one, on the improvement of knowledge, comprehension and application of vital signs topic. It also satisfied students more. Of course, the traditional method was also effective, so both approaches may be used according to the situation.