Teaching styles used in Malawian BSN programmes: a survey of nurse educator preferences.

Aim: This paper describes the teaching styles employed by Malawian nurse educators in the four year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) programme, according to Grasha's (1996) five teaching styles.

Background: An analysis of the educational processes of undergraduate nurses in Malawi followed anecdotal reports from stakeholders on the low levels of nurses' performance in the workplace. It was postulated that, in most instances, nursing students are exposed to traditional teaching approaches that do not equip them with skills for a demanding and ever-changing healthcare system.

Methods: A survey was conducted as part of a two-phased, sequential, explanatory mixed methods study. The target population comprised fifty nurse educators (N=50) who were invited to participate in the survey. Data were collected using Grasha's Teaching Styles Inventory (Version 3.0). A total of 44 inventories (n=44) were returned amounting to a response rate of 88%. Survey results were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 16.0. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data.

Results: The Expert and Delegator teaching styles were moderately preferred (x̅ 4.02; SD 1.06) by the majority of nurse educators (70.45%; n=31 and 86.36%; n=38 respectively). The Facilitator teaching style was the least preferred (x̅ 3.7; SD 1.43) by 66.90% of educators (n=29), who also reported weak facilitative skills in the sub-scales. Similarly, educators reported a low preference for the Personal Model teaching style (x̅ 3.6; SD 1.17).

Conclusion: Teacher-centred styles tend to dominate the teaching activities of Malawian nurse educators in the BSN programme. Facilitative pedagogical approaches must be encouraged coupled with appropriate staff development that enables educators to facilitate learning with confidence, competence and self-efficacy.