Impact of Guided Reciprocal Peer Questioning on the Disposition of Critical Thinking among Nursing Students

Abstract

Background: Critical thinking disposition has been recognized as an essential feature in nursing. Objectives: We conducted this study to determine the effect of guided questioning on the disposition of critical thinking among nursing students. Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, all the second year nursing students (n = 54) from Tabriz nursing and midwifery faculty of Iran in 2010-2011 were selected. In autumn semester, the students (n = 28) were chosen as control group and in the spring semester the students (n = 26) were considered as experimental group. The experimental group was trained for the course of cardiac medical surgery in six days by Guided Reciprocal Peer Questioning (GRPQ) method. The control group was trained with the same course using conventional method. The critical thinking disposition was determined in both groups using California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) before and after the intervention. Data were collected and analyzed by SPSS 17. Results: The mean age of participants was 19.85 years and 55.6% of them were female. There was no significant difference concerning demographic and educational characteristics between the two groups. The mean CCTDI scores for all students in the control group was 267.59 ± 16.66 while in experimental group was 273.90 ± 20.79. Paired t-test between pre-test and post-test data showed significant differences in the overall score of disposition to critical thinking in the experimental group (P = 0.002). But no difference was found in the control group (P = 0.70). Independent t-test did not show differences in CCTDI in the two groups before the intervention (P = 0.8) and after the intervention (P = 0.2). Conclusions: Students who were trained with GRPQ in clinical settings presented higher level of CCTDI compared to control students. This strategy may be applied to help the nursing students to construct and elaborate on their decisions in the clinical fields through using the GRPQ process.