The effectiveness of mind map as a teaching tool for medical students

Abstract

Mind map has shown to improve students’ learning skills. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of mind map as a tool for teaching. We hypothesized that the mind maps helpful to enhance learning outcome by increased knowledge retention and student perception of the class for the 3rd year medical students in the Doctor of Medicine Program, Faculty of Medicine, Naresuan University. An experimental randomized controlled trial study was conducted by comparing the academic performances (MCQs scores for pre-test, immediate post-test, and delayed post-test) and the students’ perception survey (The Assessing Student Perspective of Engagement in Class Tool, ASPECT) after attending the class of “Osteoporosis” lecture with mind map (intervention group) and traditional lecture with slides (control group). In this study, 32 students were enrolled but only 28 students completed all tests (n = 14 each group). Both groups had no difference in age, gender, total academic performance with pre-test scores mean of 3.36 (intervention group) and 3.34 (control group). Both groups had similar increase in the immediate post-test score means of 7.36 (intervention group) and 6.51 (control group) and delayed post-test scores means of 6.07 (intervention group) and 6.00 (control group). The improvement in academic achievement was measured and analyzed using the paired t-test to compare the pre-test with the post-test scores and the delayed post-test scores in each group. Both groups had significantly increased in the post-test scores and the delayed post-test scores (p<.0001). There was a trend of higher ASPECT scores in the intervention group (means5.50) compared to the control group (means 5.00) in the item “The instructor’s enthusiasm and class interesting” (p = .070). In conclusion, the lecture with mind map was effective to improve the academic performance in medical students by increased students’ engagement and the class attention.