Scholarly Paper – Copy

Teaching for Critical ThinkingScholarly PaperAbida AslamMSN 2019-2020October 21st, 2019Dr. Raisa Gul and Sir. Shams ul HudaShifa College of Nursing, Tameer e Millat University, IslamabadCritique of Teaching/ Assessment StrategyThe purpose of this scholarly paper is to review, critique, and reflect on the selected teaching-learning strategy mentioned in the article. The title of the article is “The effect of education through conceptual mapping on critical-thinking of nursing participants”. It was a qusai-experimental case-control study which was done in the University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. The authors of the articles are Fateme Mohammadi, Marzieh Momennasab, Parisa Rostambeygi, Salar Ghaderi, and Somayeh Mousazadeh. The article published in the journal of the Pakistan Medical Association (JPMA) in 2019. The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of concept-map on critical-thinking in nursing participants.ReferenceMohammadi, F., Momennasab, M., Rostambeygi, P., Ghaderi, S., & Mousazadeh, S. (2019). The effect of education through conceptual mapping on critical thinking of nursing participants. JPMA. The Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 69(8), 1094.Purpose The purpose of the study is explicitly mentioned by the researchers. This study is aimed to explore the effect of teaching through conceptual-mapping on the nursing participants’ critical-thinking.Research questions The researchers has not explicitly mentioned the research questions in the article. However, the objective of the study was to answer the questions. The questions were used to identify the effect of education through concept-map on critical-thinking of the nursing participants and the comparison of the concept-map with other integrated teaching strategies. Methodology It is explicitly mentioned that it is a qusai-experimental case-control study was done from April-2015 to October-2016 at the Fatemeh Zahra School of Nursing & Midwifery, University of Medical Science, Shiraz, Iran. The questionnaire used for data collection comprise of two part. First part consist of demographic data (gender, age, locality, marital stats, grade point average etc). Second part of questionnaire was “The California Critical Thinking Skills” (CCTS) Test Form B, a Persian version whose reliability and validity have already been proved (Khallli & Zadeh, 2003; Azizi-Fini, Hajibagheri, & Adib-Hajbaghery, 2015) was used for this study. Test comprise of 34 multiple choice question to evaluate critical-thinking through analysis, understanding, evaluation, and reasoning. Each question has Score 0 for each wrong answer or 1 for each right answer. The selection of 81 out of 105 pparticipants were carried out on the basis of their willingness, were not familiar with concept-map, and have passed their internship in medical surgical, nephrology, respiratory, and gastrointestinal. Twenty four pparticipants were excluded on the basis of absenteeism in clinical practice, not interested in participation, and showed lack of interest after enrolment. The sample size was calculated by the result of a previous research (Zadeh, Gandomani, Delaram, & Yekta, 2015). Total 81 scholars of 4th and 5th semester were initially selected through convenience sampling method, 41 pparticipants were randomly allocated to intervention-group and 40 pparticipants to control-group. All the pparticipants were asked to fill the questionnaire before intervention. Both groups went through 24 educational sessions, 6 hours per day, and 3 days a week in which the pparticipants were taught 11 topics of diverse diseases. The participants of interventional-group was further randomly divided into 5 groups, consist of 9 participants in each group. The 1st session was about description, advantages, and execution of concept-map. Rest of 23 sessions to each interventional-group were taught through concept-mapping method. The main concept was in the center and sub concepts were around. Similarly, the participants of control-group were randomly divided into 5 groups comprise of 9 participants in each group. Same 11 topic were taught to the control-group through incorporated method (lecture, group discussion, and conference). Each control-group was taught through two sessions. In 1st session topic were taught through lecture method and participants difficulties were entertained at the end. In 2nd session participants were asked to make nursing diagnosis and nursing care plans relevant to the taught subjects. Analysis of result findingsThe data analysis was done by SPSS-13 version. Multiple approaches were used for data analysis. Data was analyzed through mean, standard deviation, normality, independent sample t-test, and paired sample t-test. Through t-test means of both groups were compared and similarly pre and post means of intervention and control-group independently. No major difference was observed between age, gender, marital status, grade point average, and pre-intervention critical-thinking score (p=0.781) of both groups. Post-intervention mean score of critical-thinking was increased in both group but was significantly higher (p<0.0001) in the intervention-group. Pre intervention there was no significant difference in the area of critical-thinking (analysis, interpretation, evaluation, inductive, and deductive reasoning) in both groups. But, post intervention mean score of both groups were significantly different (p<0.05). Discussion and conclusion The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of education through conceptual-mapping on critical-thinking of nursing participants. The results of this study revealed that teaching through concept-mapping and routine integrated strategies can improve critical-thinking of the nursing participants but critical-thinking is significantly improved among the participants taught through concept-mapping as compared to the control-group. Similarly, the results of this study are consistent to other studies (Rahmani, Mohajjel Aghdam, Fathi Azar, & Abdullahzadeh, 2007; Moattari, Soleimani, Moghaddam, & Mehbodi, 2013; Zadeh, Gandomani, Delaram, & Yekta, 2015). Moreover, some studies have highlighted the positive impact of concept-mapping to enhance critical-thinking among nursing participants (Chan, 2013; Gul, & Boman, 2006; Luckowski, 2003). However, convenience sampling, small sample size, short intervention duration, and selection of one setting has been highlighted as the limitation of the studies. Reflection Concept-map is a visual/pictorial/graphical representation of the conceptual ideas. The main concept lies in the center and the sub concept are around the main concept and there is relationship among main concept and sub concepts. Integration among concepts and sub concepts is the essence of the concept-mapping. This study has described the purpose, method, results, discussion, conclusion, and recommendation in a logical way to determine the effect of education through conceptual-mapping on critical-thinking of nursing participants. The results of this study highlights that the application of concept-mapping as teaching-learning strategy can enhance critical-thinking of the nursing participants. Similarly, a number of studies has been concluded that the concept-map is a widely used teaching-learning strategy to improve the critical-thinking among nursing participants. As it is a recent study, I would like to agree with the finding of this study because the researches have compared the concept-mapping with the integrated teaching method (group discussion, conference, lecture, and question-answer). Teaching through integrated teaching strategies are considered to be the best strategy to develop critical-thinking. Moreover, they researchers have referred to multiple research studies published in good international journals. Additionally, the researchers have used a reliable and validated tool to get reliable results. Furthermore, most of the research studies are comprised to explore the effects of concept-map and the outcome variable is critical-thinking. The results of this study revealed that teaching through concept-mapping and routine integrated strategies can improve critical-thinking of the nursing participants but critical-thinking is significantly improved among the participants taught through concept-mapping as compared to the control-group. Concept-mapping is an extensively used teaching-learning as well as evaluation strategy in nursing discipline all over the world. Similarly, it is widely used in the Asian region to teach difficult concepts and their integration in the class room setting and similarly in the clinical settings. Furthermore, concept-map is a very comprehensive teaching tool in which all the related concepts are available in a single unit just like one window operation. Visual learners can be better benefitted through this teaching strategy. The results of this study are consistent to some other research studies from Asian region (Rahmani, Mohajjel Aghdam, Fathi Azar, & Abdullahzadeh, 2007; Moattari, Soleimani, Moghaddam, & Mehbodi, 2013; Zadeh, Gandomani, Delaram, & Yekta, 2015). Moreover, some studies have also highlighted the positive impact of concept-mapping to enhance critical-thinking among nursing participants (Chan, 2013; Gul, & Boman, 2006; Luckowski, 2003). Traditional teaching can be replaced by the concept-mapping teaching strategy by the nursing instructors. Instead to teaching through lecture the participants can be better taught trough concept-map to improve their critical-thinking, as already evidenced by many research studies. A systematic review (Ghojazadeh, Aghaei, Naghavi-Behzad, Piri, Hazrati, & Azami-Aghdash, 2014) concluded that teaching through concept-map as compared to integrated teaching methods can enhance self-confidence, critical-thinking, clinical experience, strengthened theory-practice, and understanding of concept. Participants can also utilize concept-map as a learning strategy in the formulation and provision of care to the patients. Concept-map teaching strategy can be used to teach different subjects and also in different disciplines. It is a cost effective teaching strategy with multiple proven benefits so, it can be easily implemented in any institute in Pakistan or any developing country.RecommendationFurther researches are required with random sampling, large sample size, long intervention duration, multi settings, by comparing concept-map with other active teaching strategies, and by using more than one reliable standard tools to measure the effect of concept-map as teaching-learning strategy on critical-thinking in nursing participants to gain generalizability. ConclusionBased on the results of this study using concept maps in nursing education, we conclude they have a positive and effective impact in various forms and areas (such as critical thinking, relation between theory and practice, improvement of clinical ex periences, organizing concepts, and self-regulating) and have more advantages and efciency in deep, meaningful, and high-level learning compared to some inactive educational methods such as the lecture method and integrated method. Therefore, it is necessary to plan and pay more attention to the use of this educational method in the nursing education eld.ConclusionBased on the results of this study using concept maps in nursing education, we conclude they have a positive and effective impact in various forms and areas (such as critical thinking, relation between theory and practice, improvement of clinical ex periences, organizing concepts, and self-regulating) and have more advantages and efciency in deep, meaningful, and high-level learning compared to some inactive educational methods such as the lecture method and integrated method. Therefore, it is necessary to plan and pay more attention to the use of this educational method in the nursing education eld.ReferencesAzizi-Fini, I., Hajibagheri, A., & Adib-Hajbaghery, M. (2015). Critical thinking skills in nursing participants: a comparison between freshmen and senior participants. Nursing and midwifery studies, 4(1).Chan, Z. C. (2013). A systematic review of critical thinking in nursing education. Nurse Education Today, 33(3), 236-240.Ghojazadeh, M., Aghaei, M. H., Naghavi-Behzad, M., Piri, R., Hazrati, H., & Azami-Aghdash, S. (2014). Using concept maps for nursing education in Iran: A systematic review. Research and Development in Medical Education, 3(1), 67.Gul, R. B., & Boman, J. A. (2006). Concept mapping: A strategy for teaching and evaluation in nursing education. Nurse education in practice, 6(4), 199-206.Khallli, H., & Zadeh, M. H. (2003). Investigation of reliability, validity and normality Persian version of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test; Form B (CCTST). Journal of Medical Education, 3(1).Luckowski, A. (2003). Concept mapping as a critical thinking tool for nurse educators. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development, 19(5), 225-23.Moattari, M., Soleimani, S., Jamali Moghaddam, N., & Mehbodi, F. (2013). The effect of clinical concept mapping on discipline based critical thinking of nursing participants. Iranian Journal of Medical Education, 12(10), 756-767.Mohammadi, F., Momennasab, M., Rostambeygi, P., Ghaderi, S., & Mousazadeh, S. (2019). The effect of education through conceptual mapping on critical thinking of nursing participants. JPMA. The Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 69(8), 1094.Rahmani, A., Mohajjel Aghdam, A., Fathi Azar, E., & Abdullahzadeh, F. (2007). Comparing the Effects of Concept Mapping and Integration Method on Nursing Participants’ Learning in Nursing Process Course in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Iranian Journal of Medical Education, 7(1), 41-49.Zadeh, N. R., Gandomani, H. S., Delaram, M., & Yekta, Z. P. (2015). Comparing the effect of concept mapping and conventional methods on nursing participants’ practical skill score. Nursing and midwifery studies, 4(3).