Nursing Education Research Unit marks a decade of success
[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/brookfield.jpg” caption=”Stephen Brookfield”]Over the past 10 years, McMaster's Nursing Education Research Unit (NERU) has focused on educational research in the areas of problem-based and self-directed learning. These findings have been used to inform the Bachelor of Science, Nursing curriculum.
Today, it celebrates these achievements with a one-day workshop entitled, “A Day with Dr. Stephen Brookfield.” The event, which kicks off NERU's 10th anniversary celebrations, is co-hosted by NERU, the School of Nursing, and the Centre for Leadership and Learning.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for our faculty and students in the graduate and collaborative undergraduate programs and community partners to come together to build upon our knowledge and commitment to problem-based, self-directed, small group learning,” says Colleen McKey, director of NERU. “To learn from Stephen Brookfield is both exciting and a privilege.”
Since beginning his teaching career in 1970, Brookfield has worked in England, Canada, Australia, and the United States, teaching in a variety of college settings. He has written and edited nine books on adult learning, teaching, and critical thinking, three of which have won the World Award for Literature in Adult Education (in 1986, 1989 and 1996). He also won the 1986 Imogene Okes Award for Outstanding Research in Adult Education. His work has been translated into German, Finnish and Chinese.
In 1991, he was awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree from the University System of New Hampshire for his contributions to understanding adult learning. In 2001, he received the Leadership Award from the Association for Continuing Higher Education (ACHE) for “extraordinary contributions to the general field of continuing education on a national and international level.” During 2002 he was a visiting professor at Harvard University. In 2003, he was awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree from Concordia University (St. Paul). After 10 years as a professor of higher and adult education at Columbia University in New York, he now holds the title of distinguished professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
NERU is a research unit within the McMaster School of Nursing. It launched in January 1995 as a facility that would promote, foster, and conduct educational research, in particular, nursing education research in order to enhance the teaching and learning process. Since problem-based, self-directed, and small group learning are the educational approaches implemented within the School of Nursing, research into these teaching and learning processes and their subsequent impact on practice is a particular focus of NERU.
The research findings have been used to inform the BScN curriculum, and have been shared locally, nationally, and internationally through the publication of peer-reviewed papers and numerous presentations.
On Jan. 19, the Centre for Leadership and Learning and NERU will co-host a campuswide half-day with Stephen Brookfield entitled “Critical Thinking and Critical Reflection.” For more details go to: http://www.mcmaster.ca/cll
