The purpose of this research is to explain the learning outcome with respect to self-educational ability of nursing students through volunteer experience. In this study, nine nursing students completed group work regarding their experience through volunteer activities. Collected data were analyzed from the perspective of Kajita’s self-educational ability. A total of 20 items were identified, including the followings：（Dimension I）：“Having future objectives toward difficulties experienced during activities”; （Dimension II）： “Self-evaluation of one’s own learning and difficulty in activities” and “Self-control to match the activity setting and participants”; （Dimension III）: “Learning by observing the behavior and language of others”; and （Dimension IV）： “Understanding that one isn't confident of oneself  ”.

　These findings indicate that volunteer experience contributes to learning of nursing students in terms of self-educational ability.

Purpose：The purpose of this study was twofold: to clarify the exercise process of the community health nursing process that functions to analyze the characteristics of the community, discover health problems, and plan, perform, and evaluate activities; and to determine its effects on students.

Methods： （1） Students stated their learning experiences on review forms that were submitted five times, and their answers were analyzed as indicators of their learning process in the community health nursing process exercise undergone by them. （2） A self-completed questionnaire survey was conducted at the end of the practical training.

Results and discussion： （1） The students’ learning process in the exercise was characterized by progress made while the students moved back and forth in stages. As the students made an effort to understand the needs of the community, they became attached to the community and showed interest in community health nursing. （2） The exercise had the following effects on promoting students’ learning in the practical training: “it increased students’ desire to learn prior to the practical training,” “it integrated learning in the exercise process and experiences in the practical training process and deepened learning,” and “it encouraged the students to have a positive attitude based on their experiences in the exercise.” Through these three stages, the students deepened their learning.

The objective of the present study was to investigate the competency of nursing teachers by elucidating their behavioral characteristics in a diploma nursing school （3-year course） during the provision of clinical training. Data were collected using participant observation, and the behavioral characteristics were categorized based on clusters of meanings. In addition, descriptions regarding the competency of nursing teachers were comparatively analyzed based on similarities. The following competency clusters were identified: The Impact and Influence, Relationship Building, Intention to Achieve Duties, Ability to Recognize the Situation, and Personal Effectiveness. These findings suggest that nursing teachers provide an effective instruction by effectively and consciously demonstrating these competencies.

【Objective】The structure of student’s learning process in the basic nursing curriculum was investigated by synthesizing some previous studies focusing on the initial nursing practicum.

【Method】Metasynthesis, including the synthesizing process as a series of phases developed by Noblit & Hare, was used. Our interest in the metasynthesis is what kind of and how student nurses have learning experiences on initial nursing practicum. Qualitative research studies were selected on the basis of their possessing consistency, with clearly stated objectives, methods, results and discussions. Eight papers, published between 1990 and 2004, met the criteria and are included in this study.

【Results】The structure of student’s learning was as follows. In the initial nursing practicum, students passed through a thought process, namely, ‘understand,’ ‘experience confusion,’ ‘doubt,’ ‘criticize,’ and ‘consciousness,’ when exposed to ‘real-life encounters’ focusing on ‘image of nurses,’ ‘nursing skills,’ ‘image of patients,’ ‘image of selves,’ ‘image of clinical tutors and nursing teachers’ and ‘the workplace’. These images were represented as ‘real image’ respectively.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the explanatory model from standardized patients on nursing students’ overall perceptions of assessment. The participants consisted of 129 nursing students in their sophomore year at university. In order to determine the effects of the explanatory model from standardized patients on nursing students’ overall perceptions of assessment, after the lecture we asked, “What have you learned from the explanatory model?” Data were analyzed qualitatively. The results show that the effects of the explanatory model from standardized patients could be categorized into four categories: a） Recognition of understanding of the patient, b） Recognition of the gap between the patient and their assessor, c） Recognition of clarifying goal and, d） Recognition of limitations. This process enables students to recognize the gap between assessment of their patients and patients’ true needs by the explanatory model, and also to recognize the importance of understanding of the patient. At the same time students have an opportunity to self-reflect and clarify their own goals. Students become better at recognizing at the limitations of both themselves and this process.

Aim：The purpose of the study is to assess the reliability and validity of a critical thinking disposition scale for basic nursing education in Japan.

Methods：A self-administered questionnaire investigation that included a critical thinking disposition scale for basic nursing education was conducted to 239 nursing students at a 4-year university. We used a Japanese version of the need for cognition scale and the self-consciousness scale for Japanese as external scales in this study. Cronbach’s coefficient alpha was applied to examine the reliability. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed in order to examine the construct validity. To examine the criterion related validity of the scale, the correlation coefficient was calculated between the items that contributed to the factor analysis and the items included in the external scales.

Results：As a result of the factor analysis, five factors were found to show the model of high goodness-of-fit. They were “skeptical attitude”, “cooperative attitude”, “perseverance”, “inquisitive mind”, and “confidence in logical thinking”. The Cronbach’s coefficient alpha was 0.79 as a whole. Moreover, a significant positive correlation was seen between the external scales and a critical thinking disposition scale for basic nursing education.

Conclusions：Our study results suggest that a critical thinking disposition scale for basic nursing education could be a reliable and valid assessment tool for measuring critical thinking dispositions of nursing students.