Professional values in nursing students in Jordan:baccalaureate nursing students’perception

Objective:Baccalaureate degree curricula consist of several professional values required for nursing students,which are taught in many ways.This study aimed to explore the perception of baccalaureate Jordanian nursing students regarding professional values and to assess the relationship between students’demographics and their perception of professional values.Methods:The study design was a descriptive,cross-sectional correlational design.A convenience sample of 182 Jordanian undergraduate nursing students enrolled at one of the most prominent universities in Jordan who completed and submitted a self-administered Nurses’Professional Values Scale(NPVS)was considered for this study.Results:The NPVS total score ranged from 37 to 130,with a relatively high total score mean(99.68 with a mean of 3.83 out of 5).The highest score domain in NPVS was“Justice”with a mean of 3.97,while the lowest ranked domain was“Activism”with a mean of 3.69.The correlation coefficient showed no statistically significant correlation between age nor accumulative students’average with a total score of Nurses Professional Values Scale-revised(NPVS-R)and its subdomains.The t test results showed that gender and type of students’enrollment(regular vs.upgrading)did not affect the means of NPVS-R and its subdomains.But differences were found to be statistically significant between the means of first year students and fourth year students in the total score of NPVS-R.Conclusions:Findings of the study alert nursing educators to pay more attention to the importance of promoting the values related to“activism”and“professionalism”among nursing students.Suggestions for enhancing the roles of peer supervision and providing peer review to colleagues would contribute to improving nursing students’performance and raising self-awareness because when nursing educators pay more attention to the items of these domains,better future nursing professionals,leaders,and researchers can be gained.Also,understanding nursing students’perceptions of the importance of professional values and the difficulties in its application would be vital to enlighten educators about the areas that need improvement.

Excellent Mathematical Performance Despite “Negative” Affect of Students in Korea: The Values Perspective

Purpose:Given the un clear relationship betwee n cog nition and affect,this article reports on a study exploring how the conative variable of values may provide some explanation for students with excellent performance despite a negative attitude toward mathematics.Design/Approach/Methods:The study reported in this article represents Korea's participa-tion in the in ter national“What I Find Importa nt(in my mathematics learning)”[WIFI]study,which assesses the attributes of mathematics lear ning and teachi ng that are valued by stude nts.The participants of this study were 816 Korean students who responded to the WIFI questio nn aire.Findings:The results of principal component analysis indicated that the following five attributes about mathematics and mathematics pedagogy were valued by Korean students:understanding,connections,fun,accuracy,and efficiency.These attributes were further analyzed with relation to stude nt gen der,school system,and stude nt con fide nee.Originality/Value:Korean students'valuing of understanding and connections is noteworthy.It is hoped that the fin dings of this study might explai n Korea n stude nts'exceptio nal performa nee despite a generally low affective mode,and extending this further,how values in mathematics educatio n might be a useful con struct to help us make sense of the observed mismatch globally between high performance and low affect.