Barriers of critical thinking in medical students’ curriculum from the viewpoint of medical education experts: A qualitative study

Abstract

Introduction: The widespread developments of the twentyfirstcentury have been accompanied by the presentation ofintellectual patterns and theories and new achievements. Thesenew achievements emphasize the skill of thinking at high levels,especially in the educational system of universities. This skillis essential for medical students; therefore, the present studyaimed to investigate the qualitative barriers of critical thinking inmedical students’ curriculum.Methods: This is a qualitative study in which the content analysismethod has been used. Participants of this study included 11medical education experts and medical students (6 females and 5males) who were selected through a semi-structured interview andpurposeful sampling. The data analysis method was conventionalcontent analysis. In the next part, by more investigation of thedata, various obtained concepts will be presented in the form ofthemes, categories, and subcategories.Results: We obtained two themes (socio-cultural conditions andtraditional and unchanging system of education), eight categoriesand 14 subcategories.Also, these categories were resistance tocritical society, intellectual tension, personality characteristics,lack of understanding of society’s need for criticism, the ruleof traditional teaching pattern, lack of critical thinking skills,ineffective evaluation, and difficulty of critical thinking training. Conclusion: Given the results and the main emphasis ofcurriculum planners on incorporating high-level critical thinkingand revision skills into the curriculum, the country’s academiceducation system requires a change in the thinking style,research, deepening critical thinking, and a change in teachers’attitudes toward curriculum designing (goals, content, teachingand evaluation methods); also, it is suggested that the authoritiesshould pay attention to the need to develop and utilize criticalthinking skills in the learners’ education.

Keywords

• barriers
• thinking
• critical thinking
• curriculum
• medical education