Research Project Description:

The last few years there is a turn in the pedagogical system, from a teacher-centered to a student-centered approach. Didactic techniques like Problem Based Learning (PBL) have dramatically improved not only students’ knowledge and understanding but also their interest and motivation. Research has shown that PBL-based Medical Curricula promotes deep learning, critical and clinical thinking of future clinicians, and shifts the focus from a teacher-centered and student-centered system to a knowledge-centered system. The aim of our project was to introduce a novel tool, namely Concept Maps (CMs) in a Problem Based Learning (PBL) setting and investigate its applicability in further enhancing medical student knowledge and improving medical thinking; and to develop an objective measure from the field of graph theory to quantitatively assess a CM as part of assessment. Thus, expertise from the fields of pedagogy and dynamical network analysis were fused together in an effort to introduce tools that complement current educational techniques in medical schools. The proposed activities were structured as follows: (a) Preparation: included all activities required for study setup; (b) Study: comprised all activities related to the implementation of the study, including delivery of introductory lectures, participant recruitment, delivery of PBL, construction of CMs by participants and experts, and completion of questionnaires; (c) Analysis: comprised analysis of data from the questionnaires, development of a graph theoretical-based method for CM assessment and comparison of student performance based on CMs Vs traditional teaching. A social benefit is improvement in quality of medical education and promotion of clinical and critical thinking skills. More competent doctors will contribute to improved and efficient care of patients which is an enormous social benefit at a national and international level. Dissemination to the scientific community will lead to establishment of collaborative links with other institutions. Findings of this project could form the basis for longitudinal studies on the effect of CMs in assisting medical students as they transition to practicing doctors.

Principal Investigator(s) and Coordinating Institution(s):

  • Dr Stella Loizou, University of Nicosia Medical School, Cyprus

Researchers at University of Nicosia Medical School:

  • Dr Stella Loizou
  • Dr Nicoletta Nicolaou
  • Prof Peter McCrorie
  • Prof Alexia Papageorgiou

Research Project Acronym: CANVAS

Funding Institution: University of Nicosia Medical School

Funding Programme: 2019 Call of the University of Nicosia Medical School Research Seed Fund

Research Project Status: Completed

Start and End Dates: November 2019 – October 2021

Related Publications:

  • Loizou, S., Nicolaou, N., Pincus, B., Papageorgiou, A. & Mccrorie, P. (2022). Concept maps as a novel assessment tool in medical education. MedEdPublish. 12. 21. 10.12688/mep.19036.3