Papers 2 study: The longitudinal effect of concept map teaching on critical thinking of nursing students

Lee, Weillie; Chiang, Chi-Hua; Liao, I-Chen; Lee, Mei-Li; Chen, Shiah-Lian; Liang, Tienli (2013) The longitudinal effect of concept map teaching on critical thinking of nursing students. Nurse Education Today, Vol.33(10), pp.1219-1223.

From the summary (with my emphasis):

... The intervention of concept map teaching was given at the second semester in the Medical–Surgical Nursing course. The results of the findings revealed student started with a mean critical thinking score of 41.32 and decreased at a rate of 0.42 over time, although not significant. After controlling for individual characteristics, the final model revealed that the experimental group gained a higher critical thinking score across time than the control group. The best predictive variables of initial status in critical thinking were without clinical experience and a higher pre-test score. The growth in critical thinking was predicted best by a lower pre-test score, and lower scores on surface approach and organized study. Our study suggested that concept map is a useful teaching strategy to enhance student critical thinking.