EFFECT OF DIDACTIC TEACHING AND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING ON NURSING-STUDENTS AIDS-RELATED KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES

A total of 562 nursing students from Manila, the Philippines participa ted in a quasi-experimental design study which assessed the comparativ e effectiveness of didactic teaching and experiential learning. A 3-ho ur training session with identical content on AIDS epidemiology, infec tion control, socio-ethical issues related to HIV infection and nursin g care of patients in the hospital and in the community was given by t he same two teachers to the two groups, one using an experiential lear ning approach and the other a didactic teaching approach. Both groups had a person with HIV/AIDS narrating his/her life story and answering questions. A control group received no education. Significant differen ces were found in a 2 x 3 (pre-/post-test x teaching method) ANOVA. Kn owledge post-test scores were significantly higher for the two teachin g groups while there was no change in the control group. Students in t he experiential group had significantly higher scores than the didacti c group on the three knowledge post-tests. In the attitude tests, only the scale measuring fear of attracting HIV had significantly higher p ost-test scores than pre-test scores but there was no significant diff erence between the didactic teaching and experiential learning groups. The use of experiential learning is recommended in training situation s where experienced facilitators are available.