STUDENT EVALUATION OF CLINICAL EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT

nature of the student experience, the program characteristics, and the general characteristics of
the environment. This model was developed as a way to look at the whole experiential learning
experience, and to compare and contrast a variety of experiential student learning opportunities
(Carver, 1996). Although no application of this model to a specific experiential or applied
learning environment has been published to date, it would appear to be an adequate framework to
describe and compare clinical education environments in the area of nursing.
Warren (1993) identified the role of the teacher in the experiential learning process as
creating a safe learning atmosphere for students and encouraging them to recognize the
opportunities for growth in the environment. She likened the teacher in an experiential setting to
a midwife, stating that she assists in the birth of new ideas by guiding students in their learning
and guarding the intensity and safety of their engagement in the environment. The teacher
manages the logistics of the experience to allow students to concentrate fully on the learning that
is possible in the given environment. She serves as nurturer, establishes relationships with
students, assists students in acknowledging commonalties and differences, creates student-
centered learning experiences, and assists with closure of the experience, while remaining a
learner/participant in the experience.
Both the situated cognition theory and the behaviorological paradigm obviously
acknowledge the impact of the learning environment on student learning. These theories are
particularly appropriate in an applied educational setting, although the behaviorological
perspective does not differentiate between traditional and applied settings, because it views
learning as an active and applied process, regardless of the setting. Although generally viewed
as opposing theories, the behaviorological and applied cognition perspectives would describe the
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