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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2026

Does Inquiry-Based Learning Improve Students' Critical Thinking? A Meta-Analysis Accounting for Control Group Variations.

BACKGROUND: Inquiry learning is widely recognized, through empirical studies, as an appropriate instruction in enhancing students' critical thinking, yet the results were varied across context. The previous meta-analysis did not include the control group variations as a potential moderator and the studies subject domain was limited only to science subjects. Consequently, it is difficult to generalize the effectiveness of IBL in enhancing critical thinking. This meta-analysis aims to investigate whether inquiry learning is effective in improving the students' critical thinking skills and examine the moderating roles of each study characteristic. Methods The literature search applying the PRISMA protocol 2020 was conducted by utilizing SCOPUS, ERIC, and DOAJ databases. A total of 57 studies from 51 articles, published from 2015 to 2025, were synthesized using a random-effects model with standardized mean difference (SMD). RESULTS: The analysis revealed that IBL has a large and significant effect on enhancing students' critical thinking (g = 1.336; 95% CI [1.061, 1.611]). However, substantial heterogeneity was observed (I 2 = 92.09%), suggesting variability across contexts. Moderator analyses revealed that the main moderator, control group variations, was statistically significant in moderating the effectiveness of IBL (Qm = 5.21; p = .022). in contrast, subject domain (Qm = 1.43; p = .698), education level (Qm = 1.11; p = .774), and country ( Q m  = 3.33; p = .650), were insignificantly moderating the effectiveness of inquiry learning. CONCLUSIONS: The present meta-analysis highlighted that IBL is effective in improving students' critical thinking. However, the effectiveness of IBL was relative to the type of control group variations. Its effect on critical thinking was greater when compared with teacher-centered learning but smaller when compared with other student-centered learning.

Thinking↗
PubMed2026

The impact of artificial intelligence on critical thinking and clinical reasoning in health professions education: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Critical thinking and clinical reasoning underpin healthcare professionals' ability to navigate uncertainties and deliver safe and effective care. With artificial intelligence (AI) advancement and growing adoption, AI-based educational tools are increasingly used to support these cognitive competencies' development. OBJECTIVE: To synthesize randomised and controlled clinical trials on AI-based educational tools in health professions education and examine their effects on critical thinking and clinical reasoning among health professions students. METHODS: Six electronic databases were searched from January 1, 2014 to July 28, 2025 was reviewed: PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, Scopus, Embase and Web of Science. Two independent reviewers performed data extraction and quality assessment using standardized JBI checklists. The GRADE approach was used to assess the certainty of evidence. Studies were pooled via random-effects meta-analyses or narrative syntheses. RESULTS: Fourteen randomised controlled trials and seven controlled clinical trials were included (n = 21). Meta-analyses revealed small to medium effect sizes for the surrogate clinical reasoning outcomes of performance-based assessment scores (SMD 0.68; 95% CI [0.38, 0.98], p-value = 0.00; I2 = 38%) and knowledge test scores (SMD 0.39; 95% CI [0.09, 0.69], p-value = 0.01; I2 = 79%). Critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills and dispositions were narratively synthesized, with majority of included studies favouring AI-based interventions but the evidence had low to very low certainty. CONCLUSION: AI-based educational interventions may improve critical thinking and clinical reasoning among health profession students, but the evidence is very uncertain. This review offers preliminary insights but does not allow identification of optimal interventions or discipline-specific recommendations due to small sample sizes and substantial intervention heterogeneity. Further research is required to draw definitive conclusions. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: CRD42025634074.

Humans↗
PubMed1992

Outcomes evaluation: measuring critical thinking.

Nursing education, along with higher education in general, is increasingly focusing on educational outcomes; critical thinking is one of these outcomes. This study examined the impact of a baccalaureate registered nurse programme on the critical thinking skills of students. Students were tested upon entry and exit of the programme and a significant (0.05) difference was found. Subtest gains were significant (0.05) on Recognition of Assumptions, and Deductions. A significant relationship (0.05) between the nursing grade point average (GPA) and the post-test total score existed, accounting for a variance of 4%. No relationship was found between the post-test total score and the general education GPA. The two GPA correlation coefficients were significantly different from one another (0.05). Since one goal of professional nursing education is to prepare nurses who engage in complex problem solving and critical thinking, both the curriculum and teaching strategies need to enhance these skills.

Curriculum↗
PubMed1992

Relationships among critical thinking skills, academic achievement, and misconceptions about psychology.

Two groups of 60 students each were selected from introductory college psychology classes. One consisted of high academic achievers, the other of average achievers. They were given the McCutcheon Test of Misconceptions, a 65-item, multiple-choice test designed to measure common misconceptions about psychology. Subsequently, they were also given the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal. Both groups made many errors on the McCutcheon test, but high academic achievers made significantly fewer errors on both the McCutcheon test and the Watson-Glaser than average achievers. A stepwise multiple regression consisting of Watson-Glaser subscales 1 (the ability to draw valid inferences) and 4 (ability to weigh and interpret evidence) and GPA successfully predicted McCutcheon test scores (R = .43). This suggests that even beginning students with high grades and good critical thinking skills are likely to harbor many misconceptions about psychology.

Achievement↗
PubMed1979

Verbal participation and outcomes in medical education. A study of third-year clinical discussion groups.

This study looked at several aspects of clinical instruction in small groups such as teacher questioning and student discussion and documented how certain student cognitive outcomes are related to them. Drawing from actual transcripts of over 75 hours in small group sessions, the study examined in detail such things as the logic and level of the questions medical teachers ask, the quality of student responses, the cognitive level of classroom discourse and the effects of instruction on selected outcomes such as the students' ability to think critically and their performance on National Board of Medical Examiners examinations. The instrument used for teaching analysis was a modified version of the Flanders System of Interaction Analysis which incorporated Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain. The cognitive level of the teachers' questions had a significant relationship to the cognitive level of the students' response and discussion. While the students who talked at the highest cognitive level in class were those who scored highest in National Board Examinations (Parts 1 and 2) and the critical thinking tests, the multiple regression analyses showed that classroom activity contributed little to outcomes. The major contributions to outcomes were the aptitude and previous knowledge that the students already possessed.

California↗
PubMed2026

Effects of extended problem-based learning interventions on undergraduate nursing education: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: Exploring the effects of long-term PBL (problem-based learning) intervention on undergraduate nursing students. METHODS: The article retrieved literature from CINAHL Complete, Academic Search Complete, Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, OVID, and Cochrane Library up to January 2025. Studies had to meet all of these criteria: (1) They used a randomized controlled trial (RCT) and quasi-experimental design. (2) The PBL pedagogy intervention lasted 4 weeks or longer. (3) The participants were undergraduate nursing students. (4) They reported primary outcomes. These included critical thinking, problem-solving skills and self-directed learning. Two researchers screened articles, extracted data, and assessed quality independently using blinding. They used Cochrane ROB2 for RCTs and ROBINS-I for quasi-experimental studies to judge bias risk. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4 software. For continuous variables, standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval were calculated. Heterogeneity was assessed by I2 statistic. When I2 > 50%, sensitivity analysis was conducted. The source of heterogeneity was explored by excluding studies one by one. The primary outcomes included standardized critical thinking, problem-solving, and self-directed learning assessment results. RESULTS: A total of 11 randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies were retrieved and included for meta-analysis. The experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in critical thinking, problem-solving, and self-directed learning, with differences being statistically significant (P ≤ 0.05). However, high heterogeneity was observed. After sensitivity analysis, the heterogeneity was reduced and the results remained statistically significant, indicating that the findings were not solely dependent on the excluded studies.

Problem-Based Learning↗
PubMedDate not supplied

One integrated curriculum: an empirical evaluation.

In recognition of accountability to both the community and the student consumer for the process and the product of their educational program, faculty and students of Harris College of Nursing, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, undertook a three-year study of entering and graduating students. Students exposed to a new integrated curriculum, it was found, tended to possess a higher degree of leadership and empathic ability without sacrifice of knowledge but less critical thinking ability than students graduating from the older "block" curriculum. It is suggested that this might have resulted from too much consistency of approach in the integrated program. Intellective characteristics (IQ, scholastic aptitude test scores, critical thinking ability) plus leadership potential and empathic skill were significant in discriminating between successful and nonsuccessful students.

Achievement↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Blocked- and integrated-content baccalaureate nursing programs: a comparative study.

This study evaluated the differences between blocked- and integrated-content baccalaureate nursing programs related to faculty satisfaction, senior students' critical thinking ability, and students' state board examination performance. Faculty satisfaction had 10 factor scores--7 directly teacher-related factors and 3 indirectly teacher-related factors. Analysis of 85 faculty members by a one-dimensional, nested multivariate analysis of variance design revealed that faculty satisfaction was not a function of the type of content program. Analysis of 104 senior students by a one-dimensional, nested univariate analysis of variance design revealed no significant difference in critical-thinking ability between the two types of content programs. When 230 students' SBE scores were subjected to a one-dimensional, nested multivariate analysis of variance, blocked-content program students scored significantly higher than integrated-content program students. Recommendations for further study are made.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1992

The false localizing signs of increased intracranial pressure.

False localizing signs, although rare, indicate significant increased intracranial pressure with tissue shift, has occurred. A review of the historical perspective highlights the discovery of these false localizing signs, and exploration of the anatomic and physiologic causes provides important insight for neuroscience nurses. Critical thinking skills, and a world view paradigm for clinical practice are developed upon an in-depth understanding of neurologic dysfunction. Collaborative relationships are enhanced by an interdisciplinary approach to assessment of the critically ill neuroscience patient.

Brain Neoplasms↗
PubMed2026

How contemporary academic structures constrain scientific creativity and hold back early-career researchers.

We argue that contemporary scientific systems progressively constrain high-risk and conceptually innovative research while being increasingly structured around short funding cycles, productivity-based evaluation criteria and risk-averse frameworks that favour predictable and non-transformative research outputs. Drawing on recent empirical literature, we show how such systems can place disproportionate pressure on early-career researchers by incentivizing safe, tractable and easily evaluated outputs. Structural academic mechanisms such as peer review and funding, escalating publication costs and institutional inequalities interact with precarious employment and hierarchical dependencies. In this environment, we contend that strategic conformity becomes a rational career path. This risks suppressing creativity and critical thinking precisely at the stage when scientific independence could otherwise emerge. Consequently, the probability of substantive contributions by early-career researchers is declining, while talent may increasingly abandon academia or cluster within a limited number of well-resourced institutions and national systems. By adopting a systems-level perspective, we argue that scientific creativity is not merely an individual trait but an emerging property of a supportive academic landscape and that maintaining or restoring it may require substantial structural reforms. These include promoting stable research pathways, decentralized decision-making and evaluation frameworks that better recognize collaboration, originality, persistence and nonlinear career trajectories. Without systemic change, we risk stifling the potential of early-career researchers to go beyond the confines of existing methods and approaches and deliver transformative advances. This would limit their capacity to meaningfully change our understanding of the world or benefit society, with impacts that fall short of their potential.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1978

Blood alcohol and impairment of judgment.

1. The cerebral depressant effect of 30 ml of aqueous ethanol diluted to 25% and administered orally to 16 volunteer subjects was compared with a control group of 15 volunteer subjects. 2. The two parallel forms of the Watson--Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal tests were employed as a measure of cerebral function. 3. The control group showed a small but statistically insignificant improvement on retesting with Watson--Glaser test form ZM after preliminary administration of form YM. 4. The relationship between the blood alcohol time curve and the alcohol effect was analysed for each individual subject, each subject being used as his own control. 5. The main peak cerebral depressant effect was substantial and occurred on average 25.5 min before the attainment of the peak blood alcohol concentration. 6. There was no significant correlation between blood alcohol concentration and contemporaneous cerebral impairment (r = -0.01). 7. There was a highly significant correlation (r = 0.60) between the effect upon cerebral function and the gradient of the blood alcohol curve at that time.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Manual therapy: a critical assessment of role in the profession of physical therapy.

Interest in manual therapy appears to continue to grow among physical therapy clinicians and educators throughout the world even though the underlying concepts and techniques have not been justified by a knowledge base. The purposes of this article are to critically assess the role of manual therapy within the physical therapy profession and to provide an introduction to the other articles in this special issue. Eisner's model of explicit, implicit, and null curricula is used as a framework for our analysis and our discussion of manual therapy. The explicit area of manual therapy includes discussions of the definition and the role of manual therapy, the scientific rationale for manual therapy, and manual therapy in education and a comparison of manual therapy evaluative frameworks. The implicit area deals with the role of clinical decision making and critical thinking in manual therapy in education and rehabilitation. In the null (unaddressed) area of manual therapy, we suggest directions for future development and research.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Using cooperative learning strategies.

Nurse educators are challenged to develop innovative teaching strategies that help students think critically and interact skillfully with others. The authors present the merits of cooperative learning and describe ways that nurse educators can teach essential content using this educational strategy.

Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate↗