title: What does it mean to be well taught? A hermeneutic course evaluation.
abstract: Evaluating courses is an ongoing part of nursing education. With the adoption of innovative approaches to nursing curricula, there is an increasing need for congruent forms of evaluation. This paper explores the character of a hermeneutic course evaluation within a practice-driven, phenomenological approach to a 4-year baccalaureate curriculum. An interpretation of evaluation data from 2 years of an introduction to nursing course reveals a distinction between learning and being well taught. The article focuses on the theme "being well taught as experiencing structure," and the importance of teaching practices that achieve a balance between specificity and flexibility. It is evident that evaluations that focus on understanding and uncovering what is usually taken for granted have the capacity not only to indicate what works and does not work in a course, but also to depict a course's phenomenological nature and to illuminate the transformative power of narrative as it situates and extends learning.
authors.affiliation: University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, Canada.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: MacLeod
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum / Q000592:standards*; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000592:standards*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008350:Manitoba; D011932:Reading; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods