Nursing demographic trends have reinforced the urgency to cultivate future nursing leaders, educators, preceptors and mentors. These trends prompted the development of a senior level undergraduate nursing course called ‘The Principles of Teaching and Learning: Nurse as Educator’. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory was utilized as the foundational pedagogical approach enabling the creation of an engaging teaching and learning environment. Students had the opportunity to step out of the classroom and into a simulated teaching context where they were encouraged to integrate and apply a theoretical understanding of their teaching practice focusing on health education. Students also had the opportunity to engage in a co-teaching session with their junior peers. To further challenge students’ understanding of teaching and learning they were asked to reflect upon and write their teaching philosophy. Through active participation in these experiential learning environments, a community of engagement and inquiry was fostered through the sharing of experiences by both students and educators, thereby exploring meaning and transforming their own and others’ understanding and knowledge of teaching practice.
