Critical Thinking Skills of Basic Sciences’ Students of Medical University in Facing Scientific Texts

Introduction: Critical thinking has been always the subject of discussion by teachers and educational centers. Considering the extensive and serious approach to critical thinking, this study was performed to investigate the application of critical thinking by basic sciences students in facing scientific texts, in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Methods: In this experimental study medical, dentistry and pharmacy students in 3 different groups, received scientific texts or exam questions related to their course which contained conceptual-logical mistakes. The number of mistakes identified by students was considered as a criterion for their use of critical thinking skills. Results: In facing mistakes of exam questions, the students didn’t use their critical thinking skills. But, concerning the mistakes in their texts, only 6.8 percent noticed some of the mistakes. Conclusion: Despite fostering different thinking skills as the most important goal of higher education in all universities of the world, the results of this study and other similar studies shows that in real situation, educational systems don’t have any program for fostering thinking skills. This issue is a big concern for the present and future university graduates.