چکیده (انگلیسی):

Background: The value and importance of incorporating strategies that promote critical thinking in nursing and
midwifery undergraduate programmes are well documented. However, relatively little is known about the
effectiveness of teaching strategies in promoting CT. Evaluating effectiveness is important to promote ‘best
practise’ in teaching.
Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of teaching methods used to develop critical thinking skills in nursing and
midwifery undergraduate students.
Data Sources: The following six databases; CINAHL, Ovid Medline, ERIC, Informit, PsycINFO and Scopus were
searched and resulted in the retrieval of 1315 papers.
Review Methods: After screening for inclusion, each paper was evaluated using the Critical Appraisal Skills
Programme tool. Twenty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria and quality appraisal.
Results: Twelve different teaching interventions were tested in 8 countries. Results varied, with little consistency
across studies using the same type of intervention or outcome tool. Sixteen tools were used to measure the efficacy
of teaching in developing critical thinking. Seventeen studies identified a significant increase in critical
thinking,while nine studies found no increases, and two found unexplained decreases in CTwhen using a similar
educational intervention.
Conclusions: Whilst this review aimed to identify effective teaching strategies that promote and develop critical
thinking, flaws inmethodology and outcomemeasures contributed to inconsistent findings. The continued use of
generalised CT tools is unlikely to help identify appropriate teaching methods that will improve CT abilities of
midwifery and nursing students and prepare themfor practise. The reviewwas limited to empirical studies published
in English that usedmeasures of critical thinking withmidwifery and nursing students. Discipline specific
strategies and tools that measure students' abilities to apply CT in practise are needed.