title: Constructing meaning in the learning experience: the role of alternative theoretical frameworks.
abstract: Student nurses actively interact with their experiences and construct theories about nursing in an attempt to make sense of their experiences. These alternative theoretical frameworks (ATFs), it will be suggested, do not conform to the types of structures that are thought to be the hallmark of formal theories but instead the knowledge of students can be understood as a series of narratives. The relationship between ATFs and the formal theories presented by educators may create difficulties for both students and teachers.
authors.affiliation: Highlands and Western Isles College of Nursing and Midwifery, Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, Scotland.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lauder
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D005086:Existentialism; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D007858:Learning; D017145:Models, Educational; D016294:Models, Nursing; D009742:Nursing Theory; D011588:Psychology, Educational; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*