article information

Educational Research in Medical Sciences: Vol.1, issue 2; e77189
published online: December 17, 2012
article type: Research Article
received: June 28, 2012
accepted: October 29, 2012

Critical Thinking Disposition among Medical Students of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences

authors:

avatar Shirin Iranfar 1 , avatar Vida Sepahi 1 , * , avatar Ahmad Khoshay 2 , avatar Mansour Rezaei 3 , avatar Behzad Karami Matin 4 , avatar Farahnaz Keshavarzi 4 , avatar Homayoun Bashiri 5

Education Development Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran
Dept. of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran
Dept. of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Social Development and Health Promotion Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran
Dept. of Gynecology and Obstetrics, School of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran
Dept. of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

how to cite: Iranfar S , Sepahi V , Khoshay A , Rezaei M , Karami Matin B , et al. Critical Thinking Disposition among Medical Students of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. Educ Res Med Sci. 2012;1(2):e77189. 

Abstract

Introduction: Critical thinking as a process of purposeful self-regulatory judgment leads to problem solving and correct decision making in individuals. In the modern world, health care faces rapid change and burgeoning amount of knowledge. Possessing critical thinking is essential for individuals in health care centers, specially when they are forced to solve clinical problems. The aim of this study was to evaluate critical thinking disposition among medical students in various levels of education.
Methods: In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, we determined critical thinking disposition among 259 medical students of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. The students were studying at different levels of general physician education. In Iran general physician education divided into four levels; basic sciences, physiopathology courses, clerkship and internship. They were selected using stratified sampling. Data were collected using a questionnaire that consisted of two parts; demographic information of the participants and California Critical Thinking Disposition. To analysis the data, both descriptive and inferential statistics (One-way ANOVA) were employed using SPSS-16 software.
Results: Our findings indicated that 98.6% of the students lacked critical thinking disposition, 1.4% were ambivalent disposition and no one had positive disposition to critical thinking. The highest acquired score of critical thinking was for truth-seeking (20.4%) and the lowest score acquired for analyticity (4.8%). The results revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between mean score of participants with regards to their critical thinking disposition in various educational levels.
Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated that medical students lacked appropriate critical thinking disposition.

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References

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