Friday, 20 July 2018
Purpose: The study purposes were to explore the relationship among attitude toward learning concept mapping, critical thinking and learning outcomes after introducing concept mapping module in junior nursing students, and the predictors of critical thinking and learning outcomes.
Methods: The study was a longitudinal study design. Participants consisted of 74 junior nursing students in a university at southern Taiwan. All participants received a total of six hours of concept mapping module that included a lecture, one practice section, two group discussions and an oral presentation in Medical-Surgical Nursing course. Measures of variables were numeric scales of learning motivation, perceived learning capability, grade of concept mapping, grade of Medical-Surgical Nursing course, scales of attitude toward learning concept mapping and critical thinking. Scales were measured before and after introducing concept mapping module during a semester. Cronbach’s coefficiencies for scales of attitude toward learning concept mapping and critical thinking were .94 and .84 separately. Descriptive statistics and stepwise regression were done in SPSS 20.
Results: Seventy-eight percent of participants were female. The mean age was 19.6 (SD=0.7). Moderate correlations were found between attitude toward learning concept mapping and critical thinking before and after introducing concept mapping module (r=.44-.47). Three predictors including attitude toward learning concept mapping before and after introducing concept mapping module and learning motivation explained 34.5% of total variance to critical thinking. Perceived learning capability and grade of concept mapping were predictors of learning outcomes as indicative of grade of Medical-Surgical Nursing course and they explained 34.3% of total variance.
Conclusion: Students’ attitude toward learning concept mapping regard to concept mapping module had a significant influence on students’ critical thinking. The concept mapping module may increase active learning attitude and lead to meaningful learning of Medical-Surgical Nursing context. We suggest further study to explore the protocol of concept mapping module and measure the relationship between critical thinking and self-directed learning behaviors.