A tool to evaluate how to learn from experience in clinical settings

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate an evaluation tool fo r the process of learning from experience in a clinical practicum at the po st-RN baccalaureate level. This complex process, consisting of integrated c ognitive, affective, and behavioral components, is the basis of a person's "good functioning" in a learning environment. To assess the process of lear ning during a clinical experience provides adult students with a mirror of their own way to learn from their particular experience; the results can th en enhance their abilities of learning-how-to-learn from any experience. Th e tool was developed during doctoral research following the works of Kolb ( 1984) and Chevrier and Charbonneau (1990, 1991a, 1991b). The psychometric e vidence of the tool supports its initial value as a component of an integra ted formative evaluation strategy. This reflective type of process evaluati on helps students link theory to practice, think critically, and intervene creatively and professionally in very complex situations.