Cognitive and ethical maturity in baccalaureate nursing students: did a class using Narrative Pedagogy make a difference?

The purpose of this project was to examine the effect of Narrative Pedagogy in nursing education on students' ability to move toward cognitive and ethical maturity and thereby increase their autonomy in nursing practice. Students taking a class using Narrative Pedagogy demonstrated "entry" and "exit" mean scores that showed marginal and statistically significant (p < 0.05) improvement on the Measure of Intellectual Development and the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory. Using nonparametric and parametric analyses of variance, there was minor improvement on both scales in cognitive and ethical maturity and the disposition to think critically in the intervention group. For all variables, there were no significant differences between the control group and the intervention group, with or without adjustment for age, the only significant covariate. The cognitive and ethical growth documented by either instrument is probably not large enough to be considered practically significant in terms of movement toward autonomous practice.