Intellectual wellness includes the ability to learn and use knowledge and skills. Active engagement in each of the dimensions of wellness improves cognitive ability and overall wellness in this domain. Incorporating active learning strategies as a core component of teaching fosters deeper student learning and improved critical decision-making skills.
For more information to share with students, feel free to use this slide set: Intellectual Wellness PowerPoint
By using innovative strategies, educators can promote intellectual wellness. Nursing faculty are positioned to encourage a lifelong love of learning from both personal and professional perspectives. These active learning strategies are designed to help students engage and LEARN:
- Learn as a team – Incorporate team-based learning as a teaching strategy to encourage students to collaborate and problem-solve. Teamwork and collaboration encourage connection, accommodate different learning styles, and provide opportunities for new perspectives, ethical skills building, and divergent thinking. For example, student teams can review clinical cases that require collaboration to respond to follow-up questions, whether online or on campus.
- Encourage curiosity and diversity of thoughts – Incorporate interprofessional perspectives within team-based learning to help expand knowledge, perspective, appreciation, and collaboration.
- Apply microlearning principles – Microlearning supports intellectual wellness by presenting content in smaller units that allow for self-directed learning, which is associated with positive knowledge attainment and retention. Microlearning can be incorporated into a flipped classroom approach, in which students are given learning resources to review before class. Then, class time is used for discussion, problem-solving, and group activities.
- Recruit active learning – Choose strategies that promote individual learning as well as group learning. Address the importance of having a growth mindset, and provide opportunities for self-assessment, reflection, and inquiry related to learning and intellectual wellness, as most students are unlikely to have been taught about how to learn effectively.
- Navigate new learning experiences – Encourage student participation in new and diverse learning experiences outside of the nursing profession or perspective.