scholarly journals Leveraging accreditation to integrate sustainable information literacy instruction into the medical school curriculum

Author(s):  
Natalie Tagge

Background: While the term “information literacy” is not often used, the skills associated with that concept are now central to the mission and accreditation process of medical schools. The simultaneous emphasis on critical thinking skills, knowledge acquisition, active learning, and development and acceptance of technology perfectly positions libraries to be central to and integrated into the curriculum.Case Presentation: This case study discusses how one medical school and health sciences library leveraged accreditation to develop a sustainable and efficient flipped classroom model for teaching information literacy skills to first-year medical students. The model provides first-year medical students with the opportunity to learn information literacy skills, critical thinking skills, and teamwork, and then practice these skills throughout the pre-clerkship years.Conclusions: The curriculum was deemed a success and will be included in next year’s first-year curriculum. Faculty have reported substantial improvements in the information sources that first-year medical students are using in subsequent clinical reasoning conferences and in other parts of the curriculum. The effectiveness of the curriculum model was assessed using a rubric.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 774
Author(s):  
Siti Supriyanti ◽  
Anna Permanasari ◽  
Fitri Khoerunnisa

Information literacy is closely related to critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills are related to exploring and evaluating information to make argumentation with relevant and appropriate information. It includes analyzing and synthesizing information to solve a problem where these activities are part of information literacy. Thus, information literacy-based learning should be able to enhance critical thinking skills. This study aims to determine the correlation between critical thinking skills and student’s information literacy enhancement through learning chemistry with the PjBL-IL model on the biogas production context. This study used a pre-experimental method - one group pretest-posttest design involving 32 high school students. Students' critical thinking and information literacy skills were measured using tests. Critical thinking skills and information literacy enhancement on high and medium category with N-gain score are 72.90% and 66.20% respectively and show a low correlation with a correlation coefficient value of 0.144. Where the basic support indicator has a negative correlation (r = -0.105). Thus, critical thinking skills enhancement is not always in line with information literacy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 604-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khoa Nguyen ◽  
Bertha Ben Khallouq ◽  
Amanda Schuster ◽  
Christopher Beevers ◽  
Nyla Dil ◽  
...  

Most assessments of physiology in medical school use multiple choice tests that may not provide information about a student’s critical thinking (CT) process. There are limited performance assessments, but high-fidelity patient simulations (HFPS) may be a feasible platform. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine whether a group’s CT process could be observed over a series of HFPS. An instrument [Critical Thinking Skills Rating Instrument CTSRI)] was designed with the IDEAS framework. Fifteen groups of students participated in three HFPS that consisted of a basic knowledge quiz and introduction, HFPS session, and debriefing. HFPS were video recorded, and two raters reviewed and scored all HFPS encounters with the CTSRI independently. Interrater analysis suggested good reliability. There was a correlation between basic knowledge scores and three of the six observations on the CTSRI providing support for construct validity. The median CT ratings significantly increased for all observations between the groups’ first and last simulation. However, there were still large percentages of video ratings that indicated students needed substantial prompting during the HFPS. The data from this pilot study suggest that it is feasible to observe CT skills in HFPS using the CTSRI. Based on the findings from this study, we strongly recommend that first-year medical students be competent in basic knowledge of the relevant physiology of the HFPS before participating, to minimize the risk of a poor learning experience.


Author(s):  
Karen Sobel

Many first-year seminar courses, as well as other programs aimed at first-year undergraduate students, actively incorporate critical thinking into the curriculum. What factors motivate students who purposefully develop these critical thinking skills to continue using them during subsequent semesters? This article discusses results of a study on this topic. Twenty-four students participated in a study approximately one semester after completing a first-year seminar at their university. The study uses mixed methods to (a) discuss students’ self-reported responses regarding nine potential motivating factors for continuing use of critical thinking skills, (b) examine correlations with critical thinking performance on a writing sample, and (c) briefly compare students’ self-reported motivating factors for continued use of critical thinking skills with parallel self-reported motivating factors for continued use of information literacy skills. The article ends with recommendations for applying the findings in the undergraduate classroom.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-76
Author(s):  
Muhammad Retsa Rizaldi Mujayapura ◽  
Karim Suryadi ◽  
Sardin Sardin

This article aims to examine the importance of information literacy and scientific literacy skills to prevent exposure to misinformation in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Believing in misinformation encourages behaviour that is detrimental to individuals and groups due to anxiety, fear, uncertainty, and a lack of critical thinking skills. This study uses a qualitative approach with a systematic literature review (SLR) method. Through the SLR method, this article uses various sources of empirical research by collecting data and information to analyze elements in information literacy and scientific literacy that can identify misinformation. Information literacy is considered to be more useful in preventing belief in misinformation compared to the concepts of digital literacy, media literacy, and news literacy. Information literacy skills with information verification, and supported by scientific literacy with intellectual virtue, can recognize misinformation about COVID-19 so that it can prevent individuals from believing in misinformation that can result in errors of action. Scientific information literacy needs practical intervention to the public, one of which is through the role of educational institutions.


Author(s):  
Amina Sadik

Helping students learn the basic sciences and demonstrating their importance in the practice of medicine presents a challenge for the majority of medical science educators. A curriculum change of medical biochemistry was implemented to include concept mapping as a visual strategy to enhance the analytical and critical thinking skills during clinical case-based workshops. A rubric was used to give detailed feedback and provide guidance to students. A number of clinical cases were judiciously selected to illustrate specific topics. Students meet with a faculty member to discuss the concept map prior to the workshop. During such meetings, all members are asked to participate in explaining their reasoning and decision-making and to thereby justify the flow of the concept map. This activity gives students the opportunity to demonstrate their capacity to visualize their knowledge using the concept map construction.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Wender ◽  
Valerie J. D’Erman

ABSTRACT Teaching and learning in higher education is occurring, unavoidably, within the broader civic context of today’s extraordinarily polarizing political times. We seek to help students situate themselves with respect to and, above all, thoughtfully assess others’ as well as their own perspectives on issues of profound contention, without contributing to exacerbated polarization ourselves. Specifically, we offer students in our first-year exploratory political science course a vital tool—critical rigor—for navigating but not being inundated by the storm. This article discusses our experiences in teaching the course titled, “The Worlds of Politics,” as we attempt to help students deeply engage in cognitive processes of critical thinking and analysis, without undue infringement from their own—and least of all our own—personal political biases. Our focal learning objective is the cultivation of critical-thinking skills that promote students’ drawing of distinctions between advocacy and analysis, as well as their discerning civic engagement.


BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. e039357
Author(s):  
Sara Sorrell ◽  
Halah Ibrahim

ObjectivesMedical school serves as a critical developmental period for future physicians, during which students begin to form a professional identity. Just as personal appearance, particularly clothing, is an important external expression of one’s personal identity, ‘uniforms’ in healthcare, including white coats and scrubs, symbolise status and a group identity. There are, however, limited studies on the impact of physician attire on medical students’ formation of professional identity. Accordingly, through qualitative analysis of written narratives, we sought to analyse medical students’ experiences of wearing professional physician attire, namely scrubs, and how the uniform impacted their confidence level, performance and behaviours, as well as their identity as future physicians.DesignQualitative analysis of medical student’s written narratives.SettingKhalifa University College of Medicine and Health Sciences (KU CMHS) is a new medical school in the United Arab Emirates, with an inaugural class of 30 students admitted in August 2019. It is the only medical school in the city of Abu Dhabi, and the only school in the country that follows a postgraduate medical curriculum.ParticipantsAll first year medical students at KU CMHS were purposively sampled.MethodsStudents completed a voluntary online anonymous questionnaire. We employed a social identity approach to data analysis. Thematic content analysis was conducted on their narratives to identify themes.ResultsWe identified three major themes, namely (1) emotions, (2) logistics and (3) interpersonal relationships.ConclusionsMedical students form early perceptions regarding physician attire and its impact on their professional identity. Engaging in conversations regarding professional attire with educators or mentors could provide an important opportunity for students to discuss and explore professional identity early in training.


2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mugyabuso J. F. Lwehabura

This study was set to examine and identify some aspects of information literacy skills among postgraduate students at Sokoine University of Agriculture and determine challenges and problems facing them in terms of searching and use of various information resources. Systematic probability sampling and questionnaires were used to collect data from175 students out of 314 first-year postgraduate students registered. The findings showed that although information literacy exists among students, a good number of students demonstrated significant deficiency in their information literacy knowledge and skills in key aspects including searching for information from electronic sources, application of various information search techniques such as Boolean operators, use of truncation, synonyms and concept maps. Based on the findings, the paper recommends addressing the shortcomings found by introducing a mandatory information literacy course for both postgraduate and undergraduate students to ensure effective independent learning among students.


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