. Zeinab-Sadat Athari; . Sayyed-Mostafa Sharif; . Ahmad Reza Nasr; . Mehdi Nematbakhsh
Volume 3, Issue 1 , January 2013, , Pages 1-5
Abstract
Objectives: Critical thinking is an important outcome criterion of higher education in anydiscipline. Medical and paramedical students always encounter with many new problems inclinical ...
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Objectives: Critical thinking is an important outcome criterion of higher education in anydiscipline. Medical and paramedical students always encounter with many new problems inclinical settings and medicinal laboratory, and critical thinking is an essential skill in obtaining abetter approach for problem solving. We performed a pre-and post-test to evaluate the change ofcritical thinking skills in medical sciences students who enrolled in Isfahan University of MedicalSciences in Iran during the academic years 2008-2010.Methods: In a longitudinal designstudy, the critical thinking skills were compared in medical sciences students in two sequentialsemesters using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test. The test is divided into two parts(parts 1 and 2), including 17 items in each part. Based on proportional stratified sampling, agroups of students (group 1, n=159) were selected from the university population, who enrolledin medicine, pharmacy, nursing, and rehabilitation colleges. The students in group 1 wereasked to complete the part 1 of the test (phase I). After one semester, another group (group 2,n=138) from the same population was randomly selected, and they were asked to completethe part two (phase II). The students’ demographic data also were recorded. The Californiacritical thinking skills test was translated and it validity and reliability were approved before.Results: No significant difference was observed between the two groups in the demographicdata. The students critical thinking scores in phase II significantly reduced in comparisonwith phase 1 (p<0.05). The phase II scores in subdivisions of analysis, inference, inductivereasoning, and deductive reasoning also failed to demonstrate improvement. Conclusion: Itseems curriculum reform is necessary to improve the students’ critical thinking.