Concept Mapping in Learning Histology from the Viewpoint of Midwifery Students

Background & Objective: Concept mapping is an active creative and objective practice which improves the advanced learning process and students required skills The aim of this study was the evaluation of concept mapping method in learning histology lessons from the point of view of midwifery students Methods: The present research was a descriptive crosssectional study The target population consisted of all firstsemester midwifery students of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences Iran in ۲۰۱۵ After concept mapping education the students were asked to make a concept map of the lessons of the same week and to hand it in the following session At the end of the semester students views regarding the effect of concept mapping on learning were collected by completing the researchermade questionnaire The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software Frequency distribution was presented in the form of frequency tables Onesample ttest was used to compare the mean score of each question with its mean and ۳ (the value of the mean) Results: In this study ۶۸۹% of students confirmed the usefulness of concept mapping during the semester Among the students ۶۹% believed other methods to be more effective However ۵۸۶% of students found it effective in memorizing histological terms and ۶۵۵% emphasized that concept mapping helped them better understand histology lessons Independent ttest results showed a significant difference between the mean score of each question and ۳ This revealed that mapping was useful in better understanding (P = ۰۰۰۳) maintaining terminology (P = ۰۰۰۴) and answering questions (P = ۰۰۰۱) In general the majority of students approved the use of concept mapping as an effective learning method during the term (P < ۰۰۰۱) Conclusion: This study showed that concept maps are acceptable among students as a means of learning new information Therefore in order to facilitate learning for students the application of different training strategies like concept mapping is suggested in basic medical sciences educations