School of Graduate Studies, Rutgers, Biomedical Sciences, 675 Hoes Lane, Research Tower Rm 102, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. Tel 732-407-5724.
J Allied Health. 2020 Summer;49(2):135-140.
Physician assistant (PA) students need to assimilate and integrate voluminous information quickly and effectively to promote critical thinking skills required to deliver competent care. Mind mapping (MM) is an innovative strategy used to facilitate students' recognition and recall of essential information and to ensure depth in their understanding via making connections between pieces of information. The establishment of relationships between concepts expressed in mind maps enhances critical thinking skills. The purpose of this study was to determine the overall critical thinking skills of PA students using MM as a learning strategy and to determine if there was a significant difference in critical thinking skills between students who used MM versus standard note-taking in their learning environment. In this randomized control study, a convenience sample of 74 PA students was assigned to a standard note-taking group (SNTG) or mind-mapping group (MMG). After completing the Health Science Reasoning Test (pre-HSRT), MMG members were instructed on how to construct mind maps and then asked to create weekly mind maps for 9 weeks, while the SNTG followed their method of study without mind maps for 9 weeks. Differences in the mean pre- and post-overall HSRT scores between groups and within groups were analyzed using independent and dependent t-tests, respectively. There was no significant difference between pre- and post-overall critical thinking scores as measured by HSRT after 9 weeks of intervention in both groups. However, there was a significant difference in the mean overall post-HSRT scores between groups (p=0.026). Hence, mind mapping is a viable active learning strategy to promote critical thinking in PA students.
医学助理 (PA) 学生需要快速有效地吸收和整合大量信息，以提高提供胜任护理所需的批判性思维技能。思维导图 (MM) 是一种创新策略，用于促进学生识别和回忆基本信息，并通过在信息之间建立联系来确保对知识的深入理解。在思维导图中表达的概念之间建立关系可以增强批判性思维技能。本研究的目的是确定使用 MM 作为学习策略的 PA 学生的整体批判性思维技能，并确定在学习环境中使用 MM 与标准笔记记录的学生之间的批判性思维技能是否存在显著差异。在这项随机对照研究中，对 74 名 PA 学生进行了便利抽样，将他们分配到标准笔记记录组 (SNTG) 或思维导图组 (MMG)。在完成健康科学推理测试 (HSRT) 之前，MMG 成员接受了如何构建思维导图的指导，然后要求他们在 9 周内每周制作思维导图，而 SNTG 在 9 周内没有思维导图地按照他们的学习方法进行学习。分别使用独立和依赖 t 检验分析组间和组内的预和总 HSRT 评分差异。在干预 9 周后，两组的 HSRT 测量的总体批判性思维评分的预评分和后评分之间没有显著差异。然而，组间的总体后 HSRT 评分均值存在显著差异 (p=0.026)。因此，思维导图是一种可行的主动学习策略，可以提高 PA 学生的批判性思维能力。
