The strive for clinical effectiveness in medication dosage calculation problem-solving skills: the role of constructivist learning theory in the design of a computer-based ‘authentic world’ learning environment

This is the second of three papers in a series describing the design and production of an ‘authentic world’ environment to help students as they learn medication dosage calculation skills. It begins with a brief account of the constructivist view of the role of words as ‘containers of meaning’. This shows that didactic teaching methods may be founded on assumptions which deny the relationship between words and the concepts constructed by each individual as a result of their prior experience. It is suggested that problems experienced by students when taught in this way constitute a very real theory practice divide and may be explained in terms of constructivist learning theory.

A fuller explanation of the range of constructivist theories follows and we show how thinking which arose in a number of educational fields, including mathematics education, influenced the adoption of a constructivist approach to the teaching and learning of practical mathematics in nursing.

This led to the need to develop a suitable learning environment in which students could acquire medication dosage problem-solving skills. The main body of the paper provides an illustrated account of a prototype computer based ‘authentic world’ environment and the educational theories which informed and shaped its development. The evaluation of this system in both educational and clinical settings is the subject of the third and final paper in this series.