الفهرس 
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Abstract
Nowadays, in the 21st century, the aim of nursing education is to prepare nursing students to be able to meet rapid development in technology and knowledge. Students should be active participants, independent, reflective learners, and have higher cognitive skills and creativity. So, it’s important to integrate self-directed learning competencies intothe nursing curriculum. These competencies require transformation from a teacher-centered approach to a learner-centered approach considering the students as the main element in the educational process and should accept their personality traits, opinions, and learning needs. Undergraduate nursing students need to be self-directed in their learning. This cannot be achieved unless nurse educators continuously assess their level of readiness toward self-directed learning. So, this study aimed to assess self-directed learning readiness and personality traits among nursing students.
Aim of the study
The present study aimed to assess self-directed learning readiness level and personality traits among nursing students.
Research questions
- What is the self-directed learning readiness level among nursing students?
- What are the personality traits among nursing students?
Research Design:
A descriptive design was be used in this study
Setting:
This study was carried out at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University which has eight scientific departments in the following specialties: Medical-Surgical Nursing, Critical care and Emergency Nursing, Pediatric Nursing, Obstetric, and gynecological Nursing, Nursing Administration, Psychiatric Nursing &mental health, Community Health Nursing and Gerontological Nursing.
Subjects:
The subjects of this study comprised 350 Students who were selected randomly from all nursing students (N = 1704) in the first semesters of the academic year 2020-2021. Students who registered in the Critical Care Nursing department were excluded because they were the same student who registered in Pediatric Nursing and Obstetric and Gynecological Nursing departments.
Data for this study was obtained by using the following tools.
Tool I: Self Rating Scale of Self-Directed Learning (SRSSDL):
This scale was developed by Williamson (2007). It was adopted by the researcher to assess the level of nursing students’ self-directed learning readiness. It consists of 60 items categorized under five broad areas of self-directed learning which are: awareness (12 items), learning strategies (12 items), learning activities (12items), evaluation (12items), and interpersonal skills (12 items). The scale itemswere measured on five points Likert – type scale ranging from always (5) to never (1).The scores ranged from 60-300. The scoring system was distributed as follows: 60-140 indicates a low level of self-directed learning, 141-220 indicates a moderate level of self-directed learning and 221-300 indicates a high level of self-directed learning.
Tool II:Big Five personality Inventory:
This inventory was developed by John and Srivastava (1999) to assess individuals on the big five factors of personality. It was adopted by the researcher to assess nursing students’ personality traits. It consists of 44 items including 16 reversed items and is categorized under five broad areas of personality traits includes extraversion, neuroticism,openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Extraversion includes 8 items (e.g. I am talkative), Neuroticism has 8 items(e.g I can be tense), Openness includes 10 items( e.g. I am creative and deep thinker), Agreeableness has 9 items(e.g. I like to cooperative with others),and Conscientiousness includes 9items (e.g. I am reliable worker ). Scale items were measured on five-point Likert – type scale ranged from strongly agree (5) to strongly disagree (1).
Method:
- Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the reasearch Ethics Committee Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University.
- Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the Dean of the Faculty of Nursing and the Heads of all scientific departments, Alexandria University.
- Tool I and II were tested for its content validity by five experts in the related field such as Nursing Education and Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing then the necessary modifications were accordingly made.
- The reliability of the tools were tested using Cronbach’sAlpha . The Tool I was 0,830 (awareness 0,682; learning strategies 0,730; learning activities 0,778; evaluation0,845; interpersonal skill 0,420) and tool II (extraversion 0,500 ; neuroticism 0,555 ;openness 0,737;agreeableness 0,603 ; conscientiousness 0,080).
- A pilot study was carried out on 10% (35) of nursing students in a previously mentioned setting to assess the feasibility, clarity, and applicability of the tools, and they were excluded from the total study sample.
- Data collection was carried out at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University in all of the following departments namely, Medical-Surgical Nursing, Pediatric Nursing, Obstetric and Gynecological Nursing, Nursing Administration, Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Community Health Nursing, Gerontological Nursing at the beginning of the first academic semester 2020-2021.
- The tools were distributed to each nursing student at the end of the clinical practice; they were asked to fill them in and return them back to the researcher.
Results of this study
The results of this study were represented into the following:
-Two thirds (62.6%) of nursing studentswere aged 20 years old, the majorityof them were female (71.4%), single (96.0%) and from urban areas (89.4%). Also, nearly half (47.3%) of nursing studentstheir GPA was ranged from 3 to less than 3.5.
- More than half of nursing students (54.6%, 58.0%) reported that they explore information about course objectives and relate information to practice and 43.7% of them reported that they use online platforms.
- The majority of nursing students (86.0%) had a high level of self-directed learning readiness.
- The nursing students had high mean percent scores regarding all aspects of self-directed learning: interpersonal skills (81.77±13.83) followed by evaluation (80.64±13.46), learning strategies (79.17±13.46), learning activities (78.87±13.88) and awareness (78.34±13.53) respectively with a total mean percent score of self-directed learning (79.76±11.12).
-More than half of nursing students (52.6%) had a high level of agreeablenesspersonality trait,50.6% of them had a moderate level of conscientiousness, 48.3% of them had a high level of conscientiousness, and more than of them (58.3%) had a moderate level of openness, while80.9% of them had a moderate level of extraversion and 70.6% of them had a moderate level of neuroticism.
- There was a significant negative correlation between neuroticism and total self-directed learning readiness and its aspects (awareness, learning strategies, learning activities& evaluation) except interpersonal skills.
- Male had a higher mean score of self-directed learning readiness than female (81.64 ± 10.81, 79.01 ± 11.17) respectively. While female had a higher mean score of agreeableness and conscientiousness personality traits than male (66.91± 17.55, 65.93 ± 15.57) respectively.
- Nursing students whose GPA ranged from 2.5 to less than 3had a higher mean score in awareness and learning strategies. While nursing students whose GPA ranged between 3.5 – <4 had higher mean scores of agreeableness and conscientiousness (71.12 ± 16.43, 73.09 ± 15.26) respectively.
- Nursing students who were in the third semester had a higher mean percent score of self-directed learning readiness (84.66 ±11.49) and a higher mean score of extraversion, neuroticism, and openness personality traits.
- Nursing students who reported using learner contracts had a higher mean score in all aspects of self-directed learning. While those who explore information about course objectives had a higher mean score of neuroticism personality trait (50.31 ± 16.58).
Based on the results of the current study, it can be concluded that:
It can be concluded from the findings of the present study that, the majority of undergraduate nursing students had high readiness for self-directed learning (SDL). In addition, most of them have a higher mean score of agreeableness followed by conscientiousness, openness, extraversion, and finally neuroticism personality traits. Also, awareness as one aspect of SDL was positively correlated with the openness personality trait that SDL is enhanced when nursing students are open-minded curious, creative, and have intellectual flexibility. Moreover, interpersonal skills were positively correlated with an extraversion personality trait. Furthermore, SDL was negatively correlated with neuroticism as it can be developed when nursing students can control emotions and have emotional stability. Self-directed learning cannot be assessed without considering personality traits among nursing students. Thus, considering SDL strategies that focus on awareness and interpersonal skills can qualify nursing education. On the other hand, alleviating the negative emotional experiences in nursing education can facilitate SDL readiness.
Based on the findings of the present study, the following recommendations were deducted:
- Nursing programs should be conducted to increase awareness of nursing educators regardingthe importance of psychological aspects especially personality traits of students in enhancing SDL skills.
- Educational workshop should be conducted for all nursing educators about the assessment of students’ SDL readiness and personality traits.
- Orientation workshops should be conducted to nursing educators on how to assess personality traits and SDL readiness of nursing students before choosing self-directed learning strategies.
Recommendation for future research
- A study to examine the relationship between self-directed learning readiness, personality traits, and emotional intelligence among nursing students.
- Assess the relationship between self &peer evaluation and SDL readiness.
- Assessthe level of knowledge and attitude toward self-directed learning among nursing educators.