Concept mapping. Navigating the learning process

Making clinical case-based learning in veterinary medicine visible: analysis of collaborative concept-mapping processes and reflections

The value of collaborative concept mapping in assisting students to develop an understanding of complex concepts across a broad range of basic and applied science subjects is well documented. Less is known about students' learning processes that occur during the construction of a concept map, especially in the context of clinical cases in veterinary medicine. This study investigated the unfolding collaborative learning processes that took place in real-time concept mapping of a clinical case by veterinary medical students and explored students' and their teacher's reflections on the value of this activity. This study had two parts. The first part investigated the cognitive and metacognitive learning processes of two groups of students who displayed divergent learning outcomes in a concept mapping task. Meaningful group differences were found in their level of learning engagement in terms of the extent to which they spent time understanding and co-constructing knowledge along with completing the task at hand. The second part explored students' and their teacher's views on the value of concept mapping as a learning and teaching tool. The students' and their teacher's perceptions revealed congruent and contrasting notions about the usefulness of concept mapping. The relevance of concept mapping to clinical case-based learning in veterinary medicine is discussed, along with directions for future research.

The Millennial Generation and "the lecture"

This lecture can be viewed in its entirety online by visiting http://vimeo.com/24148123.

Using a conceptual approach with a concept map of psychosis as an exemplar to promote critical thinking

Teaching students to think critically is an important component of nursing education. A literature review suggests that a conceptual approach and a concept map may help facilitate critical thinking in the nursing student. Currently, there are patients in various health care settings who manifest psychosis and need treatment for the disorder. This article proposes using both a concept map and a conceptual approach to teach the concept of psychosis instead of focusing on content. If students understand the general concept of psychosis, they can identify and implement nursing actions for patients with psychosis regardless of the etiology or health care setting.

Concept mapping: a nursing model for care planning

Concept mapping has many applications and has been used as an effective teaching strategy in nursing and other disciplines to evaluate both content knowledge and student thinking patterns. Previous applications related to nursing care planning usually organize client information around a medical diagnosis. The approach described is focused around the reason for nursing care and a holistic nursing view of the client, rather than a disease model. Students use a software program to cluster and sort assessment data to identify client problems and describe relationships between the problems. This results in a nonlinear "picture" of the client that can be used for nursing care planning. The process is dynamic and flexible, prompting students to identify gaps in information, consider salience, and understand the complexity of the particular client situation. It teaches critical thinking skills and nursing theory, develops competence with technology, and fosters effective interchange between faculty and students.

Spiritual Development of Nursing Students: Developing Competence to Provide Spiritual Care to Patients at the End of Life

Nurses spend more time with their patients than do other health care workers. Therefore, the spiritual needs of patients must be recognized as a domain of nursing care. Holism cannot exist without consideration of the spiritual aspects that create individuality and give meaning to people's lives. The purpose of this article is to provide nursing faculty with tools that may be used to develop spiritually knowledgeable nursing students who can overcome barriers to providing spiritual care to end-of-life patients. Our students were required to complete care maps to ensure they are prepared for patient care at the end of life. In this article, we present tools that faculty and students may use to complete the spiritual concept in care mapping. The literature on spirituality is reviewed, use of care mapping in nursing curricula is described, and our teaching approach to develop nursing students who are skilled at providing spiritual care is explained. Three case studies and care maps created by former students are also presented to demonstrate examples of spiritual competence.

Student learning with concept mapping of care plans in community-based education

Concept mapping, a learning strategy used to understand key concepts and relationships between concepts, has been suggested as a method to plan and evaluate nursing care. The purpose of this study was to empirically test the effectiveness of concept mapping for student learning and the students' satisfaction with the strategy. A quasi-experimental pre- and posttest design was used to examine the content of concept maps of care plans constructed by junior-level baccalaureate students (n = 23) at the beginning and end of a community-based mental health course. Additionally, students completed a questionnaire to self-evaluate their learning and report their satisfaction with concept mapping. Findings indicated that concept mapping significantly improved students' abilities to see patterns and relationships to plan and evaluate nursing care, and most students (21/23) expressed satisfaction in using the strategy. This study supported concept mapping as an additional learning strategy and has extended knowledge in community-based nursing education.

Mind-Mapped Care Plans: Integrating an Innovative Educational Tool as an Alternative to Traditional Care Plans

Teaching nursing students how to think critically when planning patient care is vital to their professional success. Traditionally, the nursing care plan has been used to apply steps of the nursing process in planning patient care. However, nursing has evolved into a more complex profession that requires expanded ways of thinking and reasoning beyond the linear methods used in the past. Mind-mapped care plans provide an alternative method of teaching holistic, patient-centered care. This article describes the process used to integrate the mind-mapped care plan as an innovative educational tool, as well as formative and summative outcomes of its use.

Concept mapping: A strategy for teaching and evaluation in nursing education

In the past decade an increasing emphasis has been placed on the importance of critical thinking in nursing. Nurse educators are faced with the challenge of finding ways to promote and evaluate critical thinking in nursing students, and various teaching strategies have been identified to achieve this goal. Concept maps are considered a powerful metacognitive tool that can facilitate the acquisition of knowledge through meaningful learning. Hence concept mapping can be used to promote and evaluate critical thinking. Based on the published nursing literature, the scope of concept mapping is discussed in this paper as a teaching and evaluation strategy for critical thinking in nursing education.

Integrating Clinical Experiences Into the Concept Mapping Process

Clinical nursing education allows students to integrate classroom theory into clinical practice. The process of concept mapping allows the student to synthesize clinical experiences by continually modifying a preconference diagram or map. Through faculty support and guidance, the student can incorporate assessment data, research findings, and individual values and beliefs into the concept map. Postconference discussion provides opportunities for the student to complete a final evaluation of the learning process. The author discusses ways a concept map can change throughout the clinical day as the student gains knowledge and confidence through patient interaction.

Experiential Learning-A Theoretical Framework for Perioperative Education

A PERIOPERATIVE NURSING COURSE that uses Kolb's experiential learning theory and learning cycle as a framework was developed to provide nurses new to the OR with a solid knowledge base with which to further their practice. THIS FRAMEWORK can be used to leverage learning style, promote critical thinking, and encourage active learning.

The influence of concept mapping on critical thinking in baccalaureate nursing students

This article describes a quasi-experimental study that used a pretest-posttest design with a control group to evaluate the effectiveness of concept mapping in developing critical thinking skills in baccalaureate nursing students. A convenience sample (n = 76) was randomly assigned to experimental (n = 44) and control (n = 32) groups. The experimental group was taught to use concept mapping of patient information to prepare for clinical experiences. The control group was taught to use traditional nursing care plans. Critical thinking skills were measured with the California Critical Thinking Skills Test, which yielded six scores: an overall score and five subscales (analysis, evaluation, inference, deductive reasoning, and inductive reasoning). A significant difference (p <.05) was found between the mean pretest and posttest scores and each subscale. Post hoc tests found differences between groups to be insignificant, while various differences within a group were significant. Experimental-group scores improved significantly (p <.05) on the overall score and the analysis and evaluation subscales, while control-group scores improved significantly only on the evaluation subscale and declined significantly on the inference subscale. The findings suggest that concept mapping is effective in helping students develop critical thinking skills.

CONCEPT MAPPING AS A CRITICAL THINKING TOOL FOR NURSE EDUCATORS

Nursing educators must use teaching strategies designed to develop critical thinkers. Concept mapping helps fulfill this goal. Staff development instructors should continue the development of new nurse critical thinking skills using concept maps in a variety of ways.

Mind-Mapped Care Plans

Nursing care plans have helped students learn problem solving for nursing practice, but creativity and the interrelationship of patient problems are not stimulated by their linear nature. Joining mind mapping with care planning forces connections, engages whole brain thinking, and stimulates creativity. The authors describe mind mapping, infusion of mind-mapped care plans into the curriculum, the teaching/learning process of mapped care plans, and the positive outcomes of mind mapping nursing care plans.