Innovation in nursing education: development of computer-assisted thinking

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Traditional Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) often focuses on rote memorization through multiple-choice questions.
• Developing higher-order thinking skills like inferential and abstract reasoning is crucial in health sciences education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a novel Computer Assisted Thinking (CAT) program in fostering active thinking among health sciences students.
• To analyze student interaction logs to identify specific cognitive skill deficits.

Main Methods:

• Development of the CAT program, which requires students to generate short-sentence responses rather than selecting answers.
• Implementation of a student action log function within the CAT program for data collection.
• Analysis of student action logs to assess the level of inferential and abstract thinking.

Main Results:

• Analysis of action logs indicated that students exhibited limited inferential thinking capabilities.
• Student responses were predominantly concrete, lacking abstract reasoning.
• The CAT program's design, requiring sentence generation, highlighted these cognitive limitations.

Conclusions:

• The study highlights a significant gap in students' abstract and inferential thinking skills.
• The findings suggest a need for curriculum revision to better cultivate these essential cognitive abilities in health sciences students.
• The CAT program serves as a valuable tool for diagnosing and potentially addressing these educational needs.