| Course | NUR-6300 Theoretical Foundations and Instructional Strategies in Nursing Education |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 2 |
| Paper type | Education paper: instructional strategies and active learning |
| Length | About 1,003 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Thomas Edison State University |
| Program | M.S. in Nursing, Nurse Educator |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NUR 6300 Module 2
Twenty-Eight Percent Failing: Flipping a Nursing Pharmacology Course on the Strength of the Evidence
Student Name
M.S. in Nursing, Nurse Educator, Thomas Edison State University
NUR-6300: Theoretical Foundations and Instructional Strategies in Nursing Education
Mentor Name
Month Day, Year
Twenty-Eight Percent Failing: Flipping a Nursing Pharmacology Course on the Strength of the Evidence
The Problem
The college, the course and its numbers are invented. A community college nursing program in Monmouth County teaches pharmacology as a one-semester course of three hours a week, delivered as lectures on drug classes with weekly reading. Over three years, 28 percent of students earned below the passing grade, and pharmacology was the most common reason students left the program in its first year. Students describe trying to memorize hundreds of drug names the night before exams. Faculty describe classes in which students copy slides and rarely ask questions. The new course coordinator, partway through an MSN with an educator focus, was asked to propose a change.
Evidence for Active Learning
Freeman et al. (2014) conducted a meta-analysis of 225 studies that set active learning against traditional lecturing in college STEM courses. Active learning included any approach that engaged students in the process of learning through activities or discussion in class, rather than passively listening. Across studies, average exam scores were higher under active learning, by about half a standard deviation, and failure was about 50 percent more common in lecture sections than in active ones. The effects held across disciplines, class sizes and course levels. The authors argued that, given the strength of evidence, traditional lecturing should be questioned as the default.
Pharmacology for nurses shares much with the courses Freeman's team studied: large amounts of new terminology, mechanisms that must be understood rather than memorized and application to problems.
Evidence for the Flipped Classroom
Hew and Lo (2018) meta-analyzed comparative studies of the flipped classroom in health professions education, in which students study content before class, often through short videos, and use class time for active work. Across the studies, students in flipped classrooms learned significantly more than those taught the usual way. The gain grew when each class opened with a brief quiz on the assigned videos or reading, which encouraged preparation and showed instructors what students had not understood.
How People Learn
A synthesis of learning research (National Research Council, 2000) distilled three key findings. Students come to class with preconceptions about how the world works, and if these are not engaged, students may fail to grasp new concepts or learn them only for a test. To develop competence, students need a deep foundation of factual knowledge, understood in the context of a conceptual framework and organized for retrieval and application. And a metacognitive approach to instruction helps students take control of their own learning by defining goals and monitoring their progress.
| Source | Finding | Design implication |
|---|---|---|
| Freeman et al. (2014) | Active learning raised exam scores and cut failure | Replace most lecture time with active work |
| Hew and Lo (2018) | Flipped classrooms improved learning; opening quizzes helped | Short videos before class; quiz at the start of each class |
| National Research Council (2000) | Engage preconceptions, build frameworks, teach metacognition | Organize drugs by mechanism; surface misconceptions; self-check tools |
The Flipped Design
Before each class, students watch two or three videos of no more than ten minutes each, recorded by course faculty and organized around a drug class's mechanism rather than a list of drugs. A one-page concept map shows how the class's drugs relate to the mechanism. Each class begins with five readiness questions, taken individually and then in teams, and the instructor gives a five-minute explanation targeted to the questions most students missed.
The rest of class is case work. Teams receive a short patient case, such as an older woman on an anticoagulant who starts an antibiotic, and must decide what to monitor, what to teach and what to report. Each case is chosen to surface a common misconception, such as the belief that all diuretics lower potassium. Teams post their answers, and the instructor leads a discussion of differences. Students end each class by writing the one concept they are least sure of, which guides the next week's opening explanation.
Supporting Students Through the Change
Flipped courses ask more of students before class, and students who work long hours may struggle. The design keeps videos short, makes them available on phones, offers an optional weekly review session and gives low-stakes credit for preparation so that students who fall behind can recover. The first week explains the reasons for the change and shows the evidence, because adult learners who understand the purpose are more willing to accept the extra effort.
Faculty Preparation
The course's three faculty members had always lectured, and the change asked them to teach differently. Before the semester, they spent two days together recording videos, writing readiness questions and building the first six cases, and they practiced running a case discussion with colleagues playing students. They agreed on a shared approach to the opening explanation, keeping it under five minutes and aimed only at what the quiz showed students had missed. During the semester, they observe one of each other's classes each month and meet to adjust cases. The coordinator also arranged for the college's teaching center to review the first two videos and offer feedback on length and clarity.
Evaluation
The coordinator will compare failure rates and final exam scores with the previous three years, analyze performance on a standardized pharmacology exam and survey students and faculty at midterm and the end of the semester. Faculty will meet monthly to adjust cases and videos.
Limits
Comparing a single redesigned semester with past cohorts cannot rule out other differences between groups. Most studies in Freeman's analysis were from STEM courses outside nursing. Producing videos and cases takes faculty time that must be funded.
Conclusion
A lecture-based pharmacology course was failing more than a quarter of its students. A large meta-analysis showed that active learning raises performance and reduces failure, a health professions meta-analysis supported the flipped classroom and How People Learn explained what the active work should do. The flipped design puts mechanisms before memorization, uses readiness quizzes and cases to surface misconceptions and supports students who need time to adjust.
References
Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(23), 8410-8415. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1319030111
Hew, K. F., & Lo, C. K. (2018). Flipped classroom improves student learning in health professions education: A meta-analysis. BMC Medical Education, 18, Article 38. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-018-1144-z
National Research Council. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school (Expanded ed.). National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/9853
What the NUR 6300 Module 2 instructions ask for
TESU's catalog paragraph for NUR-6300 names the teaching strategies that shape nursing education, and because the syllabus stays behind the course login, module two becomes an instructional strategy paper. Your paper should describe a teaching problem with data, review evidence for one or more strategies with attention to the size and setting of the evidence, explain a learning framework that shapes how the strategy is used, present the design in enough detail that another educator could follow it, consider which students may struggle with the change and plan an evaluation. Other sections may assign case-based learning, concept mapping or team-based learning as the strategy. Check whether a sample lesson plan or class schedule is required and whether the brief wants the evidence presented in a table. Describe how faculty will be prepared to teach the new way.
How this NUR 6300 Module 2 example is built
An invented Monmouth County college's pharmacology course with a 28 percent failure rate opens the paper. Pooled results from 225 studies show active learning lifting scores and lowering failure, a health professions meta-analysis supports flipping with opening quizzes and How People Learn's three findings explain what the active work should accomplish. A short table links every source to one feature of the new course. The flipped design is described, with videos, readiness quizzes, misconception cases and a closing reflection. Support for working students, evaluation and limits follow, then the close. Annotations note evidence-based design and attention to students who may be left behind. A section on faculty preparation shows that the change asks something of teachers too.
NUR 6300 Module 2 rubric: what earns full marks
Instructional strategy papers earn marks for a teaching problem backed by numbers, evidence reviewed accurately and with attention to its setting, a learning framework that explains the design, a design detailed enough to be repeated, attention to students who may struggle and an evaluation plan. Mentors value writers who note that much of the evidence comes from outside nursing. Using readiness quizzes and misconception cases shows understanding of why flipped classrooms work. Planning supports for working students shows equity, and preparing faculty for a new role shows realism about change. Large meta-analyses should be cited with their findings reported as published, including effect sizes when given.
Common NUR 6300 Module 2 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Strategy papers often name a popular method without evidence or without detail; show the studies and describe what happens in class minute by minute. Another frequent problem is ignoring the extra work a flipped course asks of students. Keep pre-class material short. Start class with a quiz and use the results. Choose cases that expose misconceptions. Plan an evaluation that compares with past results, and prepare faculty before the first class. Your own course problem can get the same treatment; a first draft is free with the brief.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Thomas Edison State University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
More NUR 6300 and M.S. in Nursing, Nurse Educator sample papers
- NUR 6300 Module 1: Learning Theory Paper: Teaching Heart Failure Through Adult Learning, Experience and Clinical Situations
- NUR 6300 Module 3: Simulation Paper: Substituting Simulation for Clinical Hours and Debriefing Well
- NUR 6300 Module 4: Clinical Judgment Paper: Teaching Noticing on a Medical-Surgical Clinical Unit
- NUR 6300 Module 5: Ethics in Education Paper: Incivility and Academic Integrity in an RN-to-BSN Course
- NUR 6300 Module 6: Legal Issues Paper: Clinical Failure, Due Process and a Request for Accommodation
- NUR 7000 Module 4: Course Design Paper: Backward Design of a Community Health Course
- NUR 6340 Module 4: Retention Paper: Building a Nurse Residency With Preceptors at Its Center
- NUR 7100 Module 3: Item Analysis Paper: Difficulty, Discrimination and Reliability After a Pharmacology Exam
NUR 6300 Module 2 questions, answered
Where can I find a free NUR 6300 Module 2 sample paper?
The active learning paper flipping an invented Monmouth County pharmacology course, from the failure rate to the evaluation plan, is reproduced here.
Does active learning improve student performance?
Yes. Across 225 studies, exam scores rose with active learning, and failure was about half again as common in lecture courses.
Does the flipped classroom work in health professions education?
A meta-analysis found that flipped classrooms improved learning, especially when class began with a quiz on the pre-class material.
What are the three key findings of How People Learn?
Engage students' preconceptions, build factual knowledge within a conceptual framework and teach metacognitive skills.
How can a flipped course support working students?
Short videos available on phones, optional review sessions, low-stakes credit for preparation and a clear explanation of why the course works this way.