Topic outline
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Connecting for confidence: a peer-support basic numeracy program (for medication calculations) to build confidence and connectedness for nursing students with basic numeracy and English language anxiety.
July 2015 Deryn Thompson deryn.thompson@unisa.edu.au
Sandra Ullrich and Emma Thompson
We undertook a mixed method study to identify the level of maths anxiety and/or foreign language anxiety in beginning first year nursing students at an Australian University.
Ethics approval was obtained.
The aim of the study was to identify if a face to face intervention of weekly maths tutorial classes decreased maths anxiety for students with maths anxiety. It also wanted to determine the impact of international students acting as peer mentors and helpers in the same maths sessions, to see if this influenced foreign language anxiety levels.
Timelines have been met within those presented in original application despite early technical difficulties that were beyond the control of the researchers.
Technical difficulties:
In week 1 SP2 2015 we alerted the UniSA IT department that emails containing links were being automatically sent to the junk mail box of most students. Official notification made to IT and they were to report to SAS
This impacted slightly on the project as the initial email sent out in week 1 alerting all being a Health professional students to the project, went to the junk mail box. The link as to the online survey consent and tools. Majority of student reported, in class, that they had deleted the junk mail without reading any content. Tutors needed to highlight to student to find this email. Emails were re- sent, by the academic services officer (not the researchers) to all students in two parts. Firstly an email, containing no attachment, being sent to alert students to the fact that an important email was to follow. This was mostly successful, although it may have impacted on the respondent numbers. The demographic online surveys, demographic information, maths anxiety, nursing self-efficacy maths survey (skills) and the foreign language anxiety survey for international students) attracted 141 participant responses. (124 female and 17 male). 29 were international students and 112 non-international
Meeting of timelines are on schedule:
Stage 1:
Pre-intervention data collection
a) Quantitative survey tools: Math Anxiety scale, Nursing Self-Efficacy Maths and Foreign Language Anxiety scale administered. Data collection occurred in weeks 1, 2, 3 of the course
b) Qualitative interviews: with students who consented to face to face interviews (about maths anxiety and/or foreign language anxiety) occurred in the first 3 weeks of the course until data saturation was reached.
All BHP students undertake a Foundation Numeracy activity (FNA maths) in week 1. It is a series of 20 multiple choice questions (grade 7 standard basic maths concepts of decimals, fractions, rations and percentages). This aims to identify students who are struggling with these basic concepts. We can then direct them to a number of self-directed study tools to help them. There are no maths tutors at UniSA. 104/608 students gained less than 13/20 for the foundation numeracy activity (FNA) in week 1 of being a health professional. Mean score was 13.30. Maximum score was 20/20 and minimum was 4/20. This highlights a problem with numeracy skills in the IBNU commencing cohort.
Stage 2:
The students invited to participate in stage 2 of the project were students who gained 12/20 or less for the FNA or international students who gained 19-20/20 who would act as helpers. These face to face maths tuition sessions commenced on 26th March, in line with the original timeline.
Intervention
- 8 weeks basic numeracy tuition (maths) was provided by a maths teacher.
(An amendment to ethics allowed 8 sessions instead of 10 as students had two weeks where their attendance would have been affected by practical assessment preparation).
- Peer numeracy support to practice the skills taught by the tutor was provided by international students acting as ‘study skills peer helpers’. This was to try to help their language skills development with peer interaction.
Post-intervention data collection
a) The Quantitative Survey tools Math Anxiety scale, Nursing Self-Efficacy Maths and Foreign Language Anxiety scale were administered again, in face to face format in final session after 8 weekly sessions. Analysis is underway to determine relationships between the variables and foreign language anxiety in the international students.
b) Qualitative data face to face interviews with students who participated in the initial face to face interviews have been completed. Data analysis is underway and with themes emerging from the narratives. Trustworthiness of the data was addressed at these interviews when the researcher revisited responses from the initial interview content.
Analysis of the qualitative descriptive data has determined themes in the data with value of the face to face maths sessions well represented.
It is anticipated that the data analysis will be completed within the original timeline. Submission of an abstract is currently underway for the International Nurse Teachers Education Conference (NETNEPS) Brisbane 2016.