Development of critical thinking skills in human anatomy and physiology

Adv Physiol Educ. 2023 Sep 21. doi: 10.1152/advan.00131.2023. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTApplication of knowledge skills are highly valued in clinical medicine as indicated by recent changes to licensure and entrance exams for nursing and physician programs (i.e., the NCLEX and MCAT). Such emphasis should be both welcomed and supported by approaches to teaching human anatomy and physiology that emphasize critical thinking skills built upon logic, reasoning, and judgement. The argument for development of these skills is not simply philosophical, rather, such emphasis is strongly supported by a 2016 Johns Hopkins study1 that estimates that medical errors are now the third leading cause of death in the U.S.! Active learning techniques known to require critical thinking skills are often supplemental to standard expository lecturing or other avenues of imparting content knowledge (reading, videos, etc.). We propose that all content dissemination can and should provide for the development of critical thinking skills, preparing students for active learning techniques requiring this ability. This can be accomplished by establishing an intellectual framework for understanding the adaptive benefits of anatomical or physiological traits. Additionally, explanations conveying the causality of mechanistic sequences result in learning content within intuitive functional groups, rather than as isolated phenomena, the latter often accomplished through memorization rather than understanding...

Source: Adv Physiol Educ - September 21, 2023 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Erik P Silldorff Gerald D Robinson Source Type: research