Worksheet on the Emergency Nursing Subject: Students’ Perception

and Academic Performance

Indah D. Pratiwi* and Edi Purwanto

Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Science, University of Muhammadiyah Malang

Jalan Bendungan Sutami 188A Malang, 65145, East Java, Indonesia

Keywords: Perception, students, academic performance, worksheet

Abstract: Students’ perception of learning method may be influenced by students’ diversity, educational facility and

tools, students’ expectation, and other school’s conditions. Meanwhile, students’ perception was not widely

researched in terms of the use of the learning method, student’s worksheet, for example. Aim of this study

was to identify students’ perceptions of the use of learning media (students’ worksheet), academic

performance, and their correlation. The design of this study was an observational, descriptive study with a

cross-sectional approach. A total of 82 students completed a self-administered questionnaire which contains

ten statements using a 5-Likert scale. The primary predictor variables were students’ perception and academic

performance. Data analysis used descriptive statistics and Spearman Rho test. Of 82 respondents, majority

(85, 4%) had positive perceptions of student worksheets in the Emergency Nursing subject. More than half of

them (59, 8%) had above-average academic performance, and there was also significant correlation between

perceptions of the students with their academic achievement (p-value = 0.000). This present research has

portrayed findings regarding how nursing students in an Indonesian nursing school perceive the learning

method. The current study suggests that the lecturers should modify their learning method creatively to

improve students’ capabilities in active learning.

1 INTRODUCTION

Student perceptions on the educational environment

may be used as a basis for enabling adjustments to

learning methods and to optimize the educational

environment. The educational environment intended

to be modified can be in the form of new

programs/majors, curriculum, and strategies; where

this will be expected to improve the atmosphere of

learning in students (Aghamolaei and Fazel, 2010;

Awang et al., 2013).

Substantial learning correspond with students'

perceptions on their educational environment, where

this will have an impact on student experience and

learning outcomes (Hawkins et al., 2013; Moore,

Westwater-Wood and Kerry, 2016). Perception of the

students on the learning methods might be influenced

by the diversity of students, educational facilities and

equipment, their expectations and the state of other

universities (Al-Fahad, 2009; Awang et al., 2013;

Schultz et al., 2014).

Research studies focusing on the influence of

instructional media have mainly looked at student

experiences with little focus on student perceptions

and their relation to learning outcomes (Tippin,

Lafreniere and Page, 2012; Blair, Maharaj and

Primus, 2016). Students also consider learning

interactions in the classroom to be an important factor

in education and they show increased learning

outcomes and higher satisfaction with the method

(McLaughlin et al., 2013; Purwanto and Pratiwi,

2017). Another learning model strategy, peer

coaching, which apparently facilitate the learning

process in complex subject areas (found in the health

sciences major). This learning strategy is supported

by social learning theory where students showed

positive perceptions (Hawkins et al., 2013; Moore,

Westwater-Wood and Kerry, 2016).

The present research focused on student

perceptions related to the learning environment; in

this case, the method is essential to be explored.

Therefore, it is necessary to identify or study students'

opinions about the use of instructional media in the

form of student worksheet, especially in the

Emergency Nursing subject, which later is expected

to see learning optimization.

Pratiwi, I. and Purwanto, E.

Worksheet on the Emergency Nursing Subject: Students’ Perception and Academic Performance.

DOI: 10.5220/0009125001290132

In Proceedings of the 2nd Health Science International Conference (HSIC 2019), pages 129-132

ISBN: 978-989-758-462-6

129

2 METHODS

The current research was an observational study with

a cross-sectional approach. Population used in this

study consisted of all nursing students studying in the

academic year of 2018-2019 at the Faculty of Health

Sciences University of Muhammadiyah Malang. The

study used a non-probability sampling technique

where all respondents were active students registered

at the Faculty of Health Sciences UMM. A response

rate of 91% was achieved in this research, where there

were 82 respondents from a total of 90 target

populations completed the questionnaire.

The instrument used in this study was a self-

administered questionnaire (SAQ) adapted from one

of the domains of The Dundee Ready Education

Environment Measure (DREEM). The DREEM was

developed by an International Delphi panel in

Dundee, Scotland (Miles, Swift and Leinster, 2012).

The area of perception at DREEM was modified to fit

with the academic culture in the study. The

questionnaire consisted of 10 statements on the

perceptions of students regarding the use of student

worksheet as a learning medium of the Emergency

Nursing subject.

All respondents were asked to read each statement

and to respond using the 5-point Likert scale ranging

from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Statement

items were scored as follows: 4 to strongly agree, 3 to

agree, 2 to doubt, 1 to disagree, and 0 to disagree

strongly. All items were calculated with the minimum

score of 0, and the maximum score of 40. Therefore,

a higher score indicated a more positive perception of

the students.

Before being distributed to respondents, the

research instrument was first tested for validity and

reliability of 10 students who were not involved in the

main study. The results of the validity test found that

all statements were valid with a range of scores

between 0.57 and 0.86. A Cronbach Alpha’s score

was 0.82 which meant that the research instrument

was reliable to use. The primary predictor variable

used a score obtained from the final paper-based test

at the Emergency Nursing subject. The score ranged

from a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 100. The

range was based on the academic rules applied at the

university where the minimum passing grade is 65.

Students whom scores above 65 were categorized as

above-average; meanwhile, students whom scores

below 65 were classified as below-average.

Prior to data collection, the researcher explained

the background, purpose, and significance of the

study to the respondents. Completion of this

questionnaire was voluntarily. The collected data

were analyzed using the SPSS program. A descriptive

analysis was used to explain demographic variables,

student perceptions, and academic performance. Two

bivariate analysis included in this current study were:

the Mann Whitney test which was used to identify a

difference on academic performance of the students

based on their judgments, and: a correlation test of

Spearman Rho which was used to explore the

relationship between variables. Researcher applied

the significance level of 95% for all types of statistical

analysis.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

From table 1, it can been seen the characteristics of

respondents based on gender and academic

performance. Of the total 82 students, the majority of

students were female (n = 66, 80.5%); majority of the

students had positive perceptions (n = 70, 85.4%);

and more than half of them had above-average

academic performance (n = 49, 59.8%) (see Table 1).

Students whose positive perceptions about the use of

student worksheets, more students had above-average

academic achievement (n=70%) than of below-

average academic achievement (30%). Furthermore,

in students with negative perceptions about the use of

student worksheets, all students below-average

academic achievement (100%) (see Table 2).

The current studys’ results indicated that students

with positive perceptions tended to achieve higher

scores compared to students with negative

perceptions. Other study also found that students with

higher scores on their perceptions had higher scores

on their final test (Aghamolaei and Fazel, 2010;

Ahmed et al., 2018). Other studies indicated that

students who had a favorable perception about the

active method of learning perceiving the ability to

delay, reverse, and revise lectures, as well as

enhanced personal learning (Schultz et al., 2014;

Blair, Maharaj and Primus, 2016).

In this current study, the majority of students have

positive perceptions about using student worksheets

and have above-average academic performance.

These tendency might occur because the method of

using student worksheets contributes an opportunity

for students to be more active in learning, to be able

to discuss, solve problems and find solutions related

to case questions contained in the student worksheet

(Aghamolaei and Fazel, 2010; Osakue, Ph and

Thomas, 2011).

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Table 1: Characteristics of respondents based on gender, perception, and academic performance.

Characteristics N (%)

Gender Male 16 19.5

Female 66 80.5

Perception Positive 70 85.4

Negative 12 14.6

Academic performance according to final score Above-average 49 59.8

Below-average 33 40.2

Table 2: Crosstabulation between student perceptions and academic performance.

Variable

Academic Performance

Total

Below-average Above-average

Perception

Negative 12 0 12

Positive 21 49 70

Total 33 49 82

Table 3: Mann Whitney Test of students’ academic performance based on perception.

Variable

Academic performance

p-value

Above-average Below-average

Mean (%) SD Mean (%) SD

Perception 29.26 (59.8) 2.055 22.3 (40.2) 2.580 0.048

Table 4: Spearman Rho test result.

Academic performance Perception

Academic performance

Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .825

Sig. (2-tailed) . .000

N 82 82

Perception

Correlation Coefficient .825

1.000

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .

N 82 82

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

This study also found that there was a significant

difference in students' perceptions based on their

academic performance (p-value = 0.048). The mean

score of student’s perceptions who had above-

average academic performance was higher (M =

29.26, SD = 2,055) than of student’s perceptions who

had below-average academic performance (M =

22.30, SD = 2.58) (see Table 3).

From this study, it also showed a positive

correlation between perceptions of students on the use

of student worksheets and student’s academic

performance (p-value = 0.000) (see Table 4). Students

with above-average academic performance tended to

have positive perceptions about the use of student

worksheets. The results of this study are consistent

with several previous studies that have been

conducted related to the perceptions of students with

several forms of academic performance and to foresee

the possibility of educational results in specific

persons (Choo et al., 2011; McLaughlin et al., 2013).

As the previous study, it is suggested that

respondents with high scores in the educational

environment also have higher GPA scores (Choo et

al., 2011; Miles, Swift and Leinster, 2012; Ahmed et

al., 2018). Similar findings also found that students

who perceived positively in their learning

environment tended to have a better academic result

(Wayne et al., 2013; Schultz et al., 2014; Lopes and

Soares, 2018) and will positively affect their

achievement in learning (Awang et al., 2013; Schultz

et al., 2014; Purwanto and Pratiwi, 2017).

Moreover, The limitation of this current study is

that it involved nursing students from a particular

academic institution, with a non-random sampling.

Therefore, it might constrict the generalisability of its

findings to other medical or nursing schools.

Furthermore, there is a need for qualitative methods

using a semi-structured interview to examine the

conceptualization of an academic environment.

Worksheet on the Emergency Nursing Subject: Students’ Perception and Academic Performance

131

4 CONCLUSIONS

This research has portrayed findings regarding how

students in an Indonesian nursing school perceived

the learning method used in the educational context.

These results, overall, that the student’s perceptions

on the use of student worksheets in the Emergency

Nursing subject were on the positive side. In terms of

academic performance, more than half of students

had above-average academic achievement, and there

was a significant correlation between students'

perceptions with academic achivement. Overall, the

current study suggests that the lecturers should

modify their learning method creatively to improve

students’ capabilities in active learning.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author would like to thank to Faculty of Health

Sciences, University of Muhammadiyah Malang,

who provide funding to this study.

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