Teaching Critical Thinking In Psychology: A Han... UPD
Background: Didactic lectures and exam-oriented learning can lead to students becoming passive learners who rely on rote memory. This learning style negatively impacts their ability to cultivate the core nursing values and critical thinking.
Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Han...
Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the impact of a concept mapping teaching-learning strategy on undergraduate nursing students' ability to integrate theoretical biosciences knowledge into care practice and on their skills in critical thinking and teamwork.
Results: Two major themes were identified: (1) changes in learning style and thinking and (2) rewards from learning. The participants reported that their learning style had changed from reliance on rote learning to image memory, and their thinking process from linear (cause-effect) to multifaceted thinking at different levels. The teaching and learning strategies contributed to feelings of ability advancement and psychological safety, which led to learning achievement and confidence.
Conclusion: The use of a concept mapping strategy and simulated cases enhanced students' learning by enabling them to integrate theoretical knowledge and improve their thinking abilities. The teaching and learning strategies helped participants in learning about psychological safety and increased their learning confidence.
Teaching responsibilities: experiencing literature, first-year writing seminar and critical thinkingPersonal fact: Shrivastava grew up in India, Malaysia and Singapore before moving to the United States in 2001
Woo-kyoung Ahn: I have been teaching over 30 years and I have always covered some of these materials in various courses, and I was also teaching a seminar and an upper-level psych course on thinking too. But in 2016, I felt that it was time to disseminate this content more broadly for those who are not majoring in psychology.
In medicine, critical thinking is required for managing and tolerating medical uncertainty, as well as solving professional problems and treating diseases. However, the core of Confucianism, teacher-centered and exam-oriented settings in middle and high school education may pose challenges to developing critical thinking in Han Chinese or Taiwanese students. Students may be adversely affected by these pedagogies since student-centered settings were more effective in stimulating their critical and reflective thinking, as well as a sense of responsibility, in the ever-changing world. Therefore, guiding students with less stable foundations of critical thinking might require a different approach. A review article highlighted the potential utility of the Socratic method as a tool for teaching critical thinking in the healthcare field. The method involves posing a series of questions to students. More importantly, medical students and residents in clinical teaching are familiar with the method. Almost all healthcare students must complete a biochemistry laboratory course as part of their basic science training. Thus, we aimed to train students to develop critical thinking in the biochemistry laboratory course by using learning sheets and teacher guidance based on the Socratic method and questioning.
Clarity and logic dimensions were identified as the key elements to facilitate the development of critical thinking skills through learning sheets and teacher guidance in students across all three different healthcare majors. The results showed that metacognitive monitoring via Socratic questioning learning sheets have demonstrated potential encourage students to develop critical thinking skills in all dimensions. Another unique contribution of current study was present the heterogeneous learning patterns and progress trajectories of clarity and logic dimensions within classes.
Emerging trends in information technology requires that the new generation of medical students become critical thinkers [1]. The General Medical Council (GMC) of the United Kingdom encourages teachers to facilitate the acquisition of critical thinking skills by students in the medical and health professions [2]. Decades of research have proven that critical thinkers can present dispositions like flexibility, persistence, and willingness when faced with a range of tasks; they display meta-cognitive monitoring and a willingness to self-correct to seek long-term consensus[3]. Although, critical thinking is constructed from childhood in most Western countries and are valued by higher education as a necessary skill for coping with society [4]. However, critical thinking constructing and teaching has attracted little attention in Eastern education systems until recently [5, 6].
Pre-intervention critical thinking abilities are different amongst students of different healthcare majors, especially in each intellectual dimension (H1a). Post-intervention critical thinking abilities would develop in students from each healthcare major after using the Socratic method (H1b).
After clarifying the relation of Socratic method interventions in the class, we aim to scrutinize the trajectories of students between majors further to understand the learning style in class (Aim 1). Furthermore, we also aim to identify the key intellectual dimensions that could lead to an overall improvement in the critical thinking of students in each major (Aim 2). Additionally, we observed improvement trajectories of specific intellectual dimensions within major (Aim 3).
The incorporation of Socratic questioning in healthcare education curriculum is under development, including for general medical education [60], medical [61], pharmacy [54, 62], and nursing students [63]. A review article of revisiting the Socratic method as a tool for teaching critical thinking in healthcare professions revels few advantages of Socratic questioning [23]. Three type of Socratic questions were mention and could commonly used in different clinical situations [23], such as procedure question would use in those with correct answers (e.g., Which of the following medications has antithrombotic function?); preference question can apply in those with no correct answers (e.g., What type of consultation is most suitable for this patient?); judgment question would be the most challenge critical thinking within a Socratic paradigm by integrating different domain knowledge and skills (e.g., Does this patient require antibiotic treatment?). It is necessary to apply and analyze information in a logical manner as well as self-regulate and use critical thinking in order to achieve the best outcome for patients. For medical doctors, pharmacists or clinical laboratory technicians to provide high quality health care across all disciplines, critical thinking is inherently required.
For each biochemistry laboratory class, the teacher assembled five to six groups of four to five students each. The course contained five different biochemical experiments: (1) Plasmid DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) extraction and purification; (2) restriction enzyme digestion and electrophoresis of plasmid DNA; (3) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of plasmid DNA; (4) recombinant protein expression in Escherichia coli; and (5) quantification of recombinant protein. The experimental learning sheets included three or four critical thinking questions (Table S1), encouraging students to explore experimental principles and alternative explanations further. To facilitate discussion, students were organized into small groups of four to five students seated around a single table, discussing and answering the questions. At this time, the students would pen down their first answers to the critical thinking questions, and the teacher would grade them based on the universal intellectual standards (learning sheets, first evaluation).
The biochemistry laboratory courses and the Socratic method in current study are performed and taught by a senior biochemistry teacher (PhD in Institute of Basic Medical Science, NCKU) who has 40 years teaching experience. The teacher has long focused on teaching critical thinking skills to students, and also offers four senior clinical case related courses by practicing the Socratic method, such as clinical concept, critical thinking in medicine, clinical reasoning and special topics in clinical reasoning with more than 20 years of experience. Therefore, in the course, teacher will often ask a series of questions for students to think about the relevance of biochemical science and clinical practice.
The Confucian way of thinking does not have a defined founding date. Confucianism has been referred to as a religion, a philosophy, and a government style. In the context of religion and philosophy, there was not an organized group spearheading the movement. The ideologies outlined by Confucianism were practiced centuries before the birth of Confucius. Confucius found inspiration in the early Zhou Dynasty, led by the First Duke of Zhou, for his teachings. After Confucius' death, the influence of his teachings, the Five Classics (the Book of Songs, the Book of Documents, the Book of Changes, the Book of Rites, and the Spring and Autumn Annals), and the writings of his disciples spread throughout China. Eventually, they became significant political and philosophical influences.
The bottom-line, take-home message from this article is really quite simple. If you plan to enter the workforce after you graduate, you will need to be hired. If you want to be hired, you must help potential employers form the impression that you are someone who will be a motivated, enthusiastic, committed, goal-oriented and talented employee who will come to work on time each day prepared to use your both your strong interpersonal and critical-thinking skills to perform your job in a competent, productive, and positive manner. The best way to make this happen is to take full advantage of the remainder of your college education to practice and strengthen your soft skills so you can (1) include them in your cover letters and resume, (2) identify and describe them in a clear and confident manner during your interviews, and (3) ensure that your college professors can and will verify that you possess these skills in their letters of reference. 041b061a72