| dc.description.abstract | Abstract 1:
Various forms of students’ reasoning characteristics have been studied, especially in pre-college students. A principled pedagogical framework reflecting the cognitive processes of health care students has not been investigated. Most cognitive studies evaluated patients who had experienced traumatic brain injury, brain surgery, or cancer. In the past, cognition tests have been used as an evaluation tool among college/university students. To date, no study has evaluated the cognitive levels of nursing and medical students.
Pedagogical tenets of critical thinking are presently being used to design and implement newer teaching modules for health care students. Before launching a newer pedagogical approach for health care students, we must first understand their cognitive strategies, whether they are concrete operational, transitional, or formal operational thinkers. In order to avoid an experienced interviewer, special materials, study-specific equipment and time-consuming classroom use, Lawson developed a reliable development-specific classroom test of formal level reasoning (1). To understand how years of education influences cognitive levels of scientific reasoning, nursing and medical students at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) were asked to complete the Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (CTSR), a validated measure of hypothetico-deductive and probabilistic reasoning (1). To the best of our knowledge, the use of CTSR for the assessment of college/university students has not been studied extensively. Our overall univariate analysis show significant differences in rubric CTSR scores between nursing students versus medical students (p<0.0001), between genders (p<0.0001), as well as differences based on years of schooling (p<0.0003). However, the association between rubric CTSR scores and gender disappeared when analysis was performed among nursing and medical students separately. Students differed in the distribution of their CTSR classification according to Piaget’s operational standards (concrete operational, low transitional, high transitional, and formal operational) with respect to gender and to training program. Seventy percent of nurse of the nursing student totals were concrete operational or low transitional thinkers, while 96% of medical student of the medical student totals were high transitional or formal operational thinkers. Forty three percent of females in both student groups were low transitional and high transitional thinkers, while 32% of the males of both professional programs were high transitional and formal operational thinkers.
Abstract 2:
Background: Recent studies supports simulation training as a superior teaching method compared to conventional lectures. Results are mixed regarding which teaching methods yield greater immediate knowledge gain and long-term knowledge retention in health care students. A few studies addressed the use of a combination of different teaching methods. The combination of lecture and simulation training could improve knowledge retention. The primary aims of this study are to: 1) identify which teaching method or combination yields the greatest immediate knowledge gain and long-term knowledge retention, and 2) identify how health care students’ prior cognition levels (concrete operational, low transitional, high transitional, and formal operational) correlates with the teaching methods.
Methods: Medical and nursing students were recruited from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Demographic data were collected. Students were randomized into four groups based on the teaching methods used to deliver neonatal resuscitation training to each group: control, video-lecture, simulation, and a combination of video-lecture with simulation. To assess knowledge retention, three exams were administered: 1) Pre-Intervention Baseline Knowledge Exam #1, 2) Immediate Post-Intervention Knowledge Gain Exam #2, and 3) Long-Term Knowledge Gain/Loss with Retention Exam #3.
Results and Conclusion: Teaching methods had an effect on immediate knowledge gain and on long-term knowledge gain/loss with retention relative to immediate knowledge gained, but not on long-term knowledge gain/loss with retention when compared to baseline knowledge. For immediate knowledge gain, video-lecture with simulation performed the best numerically and video-lecture and video-lecture with simulation were significantly better than control. For long-term knowledge gain/loss with retention relative to knowledge gained, video-lecture with simulation was significantly worse than control. Multivariate analyses of all three outcomes did not reveal new findings beyond the univariate analyses. | en_US |