Best Practice – I

BEST PRACTICE – I

Title: CONCEPT BASED LEARNING (CONCEPT MAPPING)

Objectives of the Practice

  1. To develop a deep understanding of key nursing concepts
  2. To promote critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills
  3. To support transfer of learning to clinical practice
  4. long-term retention of nursing knowledge
  5. To prepare learners for professional nursing practice

Context –

Concept-based learning is an educational approach that emphasizes the understanding of big ideas or concepts instead of memorization of isolated facts. The students are encouraged to think critically and solve problems by identifying patterns and relationships between different ideas. The approach involves breaking down complex concepts into smaller components or sub-concepts, which are easier to understand and retain. Students then use these building blocks to construct a deeper understanding of the overarching concept.

The concept-based learning approach differs from the traditional content-based approach, which focuses on the transmission of knowledge through memorization of isolated facts or topics. With the concept-based approach, students are encouraged to think beyond memorization and apply their knowledge to real-life situations, which promotes deeper learning and long-term retention of information.

The Practice –

Steps in Preparing Concept Map

  • Select: Write down major terms, concepts, and keywords about a topic.
  • Rank: Identify the mist general, intermediate and specific concepts and rank them as most abstract to most specific.
  • Cluster: Group the concepts by drawing circles
    • On top most general concepts.
    • In the middle intermediate concepts
    • On bottom specific concepts.
  • Arrange: Place concepts into a diagrammatic representation by drawing lines between related concepts.
  • Link and label: Use lines and prepositions to link and label the concepts.
  • Self assessment: Revise the concept map based on the appraisal.
  • Peer assessment: Get feedback from a peer group.
  • Finalize: Finalize concept map based on self and peer review and by critical analysis.

Tips used in preparation of concept maps

The following approaches are used to develop nodes and links.

  • Top down approach
  • Working from general to specific
  • Free association approach
  • Brainstorming nodes to developing links and relationships.
  • Different shapes for nodes to identify different types of information
  • Different colour nodes to identify prior and new information
  • Cloud node to identify a question.
  • Question node to gather information.

Evidence of Success –

  • Students easily understand complex concepts.
  • Teachers are more involved in the teaching-learning process, with focus on the expected outcomes.
  • Improvement in teaching-learning experience.

Problems Encountered and Resources Required –

  • Sometimes creating a concept map can be a time-consuming process