Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Nursing - Department of Surgical Nursing

Background : Critical thinking (CT) is currently a highly valued educational outcome throughout the educational spectrum and especially inthenursing education.Numerous teaching strategies that enhance CT have been described in the nursing literature, but only a few teaching strategies have been evaluated for their impact on clinical practice.The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of concept mapping, on critical thinking skills of baccalaureate nursing students. Methods: A quazi- experimental control group study with a pretest and posttest design was used on a purposive sample of 60students in a selected Nursing Faculty in Cairo-Egypt. Tools: self-administered questionnaire and pre-post test of California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST), modified Arabic versionwere used. A pre-test was given to the two groups to determine the baseline category of critical thinking skills. Post-test was given to the two groups at the end of the study after introducing intervention (concept mapping) to the experimental group. Results:A highly statistical significant difference in the pretest- post-test CT mean scores in the experimental group with t value of =5.106 at P value =0.000 and the overall mean critical thinking post-test score was statistically significant between the two groups with t value of 6.571 at P value of 0.000.Conclusion: Students who were taught with concept mapping showed anincrease in their CT scores than those in the control group and thus supported the study hypotheses. Recommendations: Nursing students require effective CT skills,in order to make sound knowledge-based assessment and management choices during patient care.Further studies are needed to examine the potential of concept mapping as a teaching strategy to be taught in pre-requisite courses as a way to begin learning to critically think prior entry into nursing courses

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