By Audrey S. Schou MSN, RN, Kaplan Nursing School Consultant
Robert Kegan’s Theory of Adult Development (1982, 1994) considers a person as a maker of meaning throughout his or her lifespan. We employ this framework to suggest why and how the use of cohorts in adult basic education.
Growth processes, such as learning and teaching processes, depend on connections, and these processes, according to Kegan’s theory, invariably occur in some context (Kegan, 1982). Students with different ways of knowing need different forms of support and challenge from their surrounding contexts to grow. We refer to such contexts as “holding environments” (Kegan, 1982, 1994), which, when successful, can help students grow to manage better the complexities of their learning and their other social roles.
There has been much research to the benefit of cohort learning, and I have seen it applied in varying academic settings, but I recently saw it used in helping nursing students be diligent and effective in their preparation for the NCLEX-RN® exam.
Unlike nursing school exams, the NCLEX-RN licensing exam is a computer adaptive test, and students often flail at preparing effectively for this test. Diving back into texts, past Powerpoint handouts, and scrawled notes are often the resource of choice for nursing students who do not understand the nature of this unique exam. Although this was effective for their academic success, using this approach nursing students are woefully unprepared for a test of clinical reasoning and an assessment of their safety for practice upon licensure.
Through Kaplan’s NCLEX prep students are guided to practice answering NCLEX-style questions by the thousands, but due to insecurity are often drawn back to their previous routine of memorizing content. With this in mind, in the final semester, I witnessed a nursing instructor of 40 students randomly pair up her students to be accountable to each other from early spring all the way through test day.
This partnership between the students enabled them to stay focused on the correct progression of their preparation and be accountable to each other for every assignment. No grades were given, only the understanding that they would report to their “buddy” what they had done and how they had scored as they practiced their allotment of questions and practice tests. With time, over the semester, arose a mentorship, a resource for content, a thought partner, a guide for next steps, and most importantly a cheerleader for success.
After graduation the students continued to work with each other as they prepared for the NCLEX, and found comfort in the bonds that had formed knowing they were not alone in this last step of the journey. As nursing students close in on test day, they feel great anxiety and responsibility for success on this test; responsible to themselves, to their families, their school, their preceptors, and even their faculty. But through this cohort partnership, they also felt responsibility toward their “study buddy,” and knew that their drive to passing also lay with their partner. This motivated each student to prepare at their very highest level.
In evaluating this format of cohort learning, the students found that their student-to-student partnership added value in the effectiveness of their preparation as well as their accountability to be test-ready. The true data of this format will be revealed with future cohorts and corresponding pass rates, but for now the instructor finds her work load lightened and the students find comfort in have a comrade as they make this trek toward licensure. Food for thought!
