Concept mapping as a tool to improve medical student's learning about rabies surveillance

Rabies is a viral zoonotic infection of the central nervous system. Annually more than 59,000 people die of rabies worldwide; human rabies can be prevented by using proper postexposure prophylaxis. A major component of successful rabies surveillance is well-educated medical professional.

The aim of this study is evaluate the effect of concept mapping as an active teaching method on medical students' knowledge about rabies prophylaxis.

It was a pre- and post interventional study carried out on 80 medical interns. Our intervention included Group 1 - trained by concept maps - and Group 2: - trained by book reading. Data gathering tool was the researcher-made questionnaire that consisted of seven open-ended questions that assessed the interns' knowledge about animal bite surveillance.

Students' scores of pre- and posttests have been analyzed with paired t-test and independent t-test.

Comparing the pre- and posttest scores of students in two groups by paired t-test showed that interventions have been effective in both the groups; posttest scores of both groups had increased significantly (P < 0.001). Score mean difference in concept map group was significantly higher than book reading group based on independent t-test (P = 0.001).

It seems that concept mapping as a visual training tool for transferring the concepts to medical students is more appropriate than the other traditional ones like book reading, but more research is needed to be sure that active methods are better than traditional ones.