Teaching Critical Thinking to First-Year Medical Students through Concept Mapping

Abstract

Helping students learn the basic sciences and demonstrating their importance in the practice of medicine presents a challenge for the majority of medical science educators. A curriculum change of medical biochemistry was implemented to include concept mapping as a visual strategy to enhance the analytical and critical thinking skills during clinical case-based workshops. A rubric was used to give detailed feedback and provide guidance to students. A number of clinical cases were judiciously selected to illustrate specific topics. Students meet with a faculty member to discuss the concept map prior to the workshop. During such meetings, all members are asked to participate in explaining their reasoning and decision-making and to thereby justify the flow of the concept map. This activity gives students the opportunity to demonstrate their capacity to visualize their knowledge using the concept map construction.