The development of critical thinking among medical students through the use of the case method in teaching

Abstract

The article examines the problems of developing critical thinking among students of medical universities through the use of the case method in the educational process. The relevance of this topic is due to the increasing need for future doctors to develop clinical thinking skills and the ability to make informed decisions in difficult professional situations. The purpose of the study is to analyze the effectiveness of using the case method as a tool for developing critical thinking among students of medical specialties. The study analyzed the results of the implementation of the case method in the educational process on the basis of three medical universities in Russia (n=450). The methods of questioning, testing, expert evaluation, as well as statistical data processing using the SPSS 23.0 software were used. The cases were developed based on real clinical situations and included a description of the problem, additional materials (results of analyses, instrumental studies, etc.) and questions for discussion. The analysis of the obtained data showed that the use of the case method contributes to a statistically significant increase in the level of critical thinking among students of medical universities. Thus, in the experimental group (n=225), the average score on the Watson-Glazer critical thinking test increased from 52.4±3.7 to 64.8±4.2 (p<0.01), while in the control group (n=225) the increase was only 3.1±2.6 points (p>0.05). In addition, a qualitative analysis of the results of solving the cases demonstrated an improvement in the skills of information analysis, hypotheses, argumentation and decision-making among the students of the experimental group. The results obtained indicate the high effectiveness of the case method as a tool for developing critical thinking in future doctors.