Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2008

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

EdD

College

College of Education and Human Services

Department

Learning Sciences and Human Development

Committee Chair

Anne Nardi.

Abstract

An emerging "health" paradigm, Mind-Consciousness-Thought (MCT), proposes that three universal Principles, Mind (life energy), Consciousness (the capacity to be aware of thinking as "reality"), and Thought (the ability to create thinking continually), explain how psychological experience is created from the inside-out, not created from the outside-in by events and circumstances. It proposes that life comes through us, not at us. It proposes that insight into the existence and operation of those principles reconnects people to their innate mental well-being, an always accessible source of balance, wisdom, and creativity (i.e., resiliency). It proposes that accessing mental well-being is incompatible with chronic stress, and that, once people realize the Principles that explain how the mind works, hope, optimism and resiliency incrementally increase in the face of changing life circumstances.;An on-line MCT educational module was created for freshman Nursing students, with pre- and post-tests to measure changes in their levels of stress and well-being. Pre- and post-tests were administered simultaneously to a control group without exposure to the module. MCT learning depends on reflection and insight. It was anticipated that the self-contained "course within a course" would be sufficiently distinctive that students would appreciate and adapt to that learning style. In fact, although 70% of the 150 students who were assigned the module took the pre- and post-tests, there were fewer than four visits to 24 of the 48 content windows of the module and an average time spent of 47 seconds on all windows that were visited. Detailed tracking data show few, brief student visits to the critical parts of the learning module, with most visits, and the longest visits, to opening pages and the pre-post-questionnaires.;This research produced no measurable results. This is interpreted as being due to lack of meaningful participation in the intervention. It supports the assumption that MCT entails intuitive learning, ideally presented independent of traditional on-line courses that are set up for rote learning. MCT should be evaluated as a unique offering, which students enter with the understanding that the learning experience will be reflective and insight-based. Future research should focus on distinctive on-line presentations of MCT that invite intuitive learning.

Download

Share

COinS