[Critical thinking skills and critical thinking dispositions in freshmen and senior students of health care management]

Nowadays, experts introduce critical thinking as the main outcome of higher education and consider teaching "how to think" as the basis for learning. This study compares the critical thinking skills and critical thinking dispositions in freshmen and senior students of health care management. This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on a sample of 60 freshmen and senior students of health care management. The data gathering tools included California critical thinking skills test, as well as California critical thinking dispositions inventory. Data was analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics, T-test, and Chi[2]. The mean and standard deviation of critical thinking skills total score in freshmen and senior students was respectively 11.55 +/- 2.18 and 11.21 +/- 2.59, which was in the normal limit for both. There was no significant difference between the freshmen and senior students' score patterns. Considering critical thinking disposition total score, the mean and standard deviation in freshmen, was 282.37 +/- 27.93 and in senior students was 289.64 +/- 21.13. There was a significant difference between the score pattern of critical thinking disposition in freshmen and senior students. The scores of senior students were higher than freshmen scores. The total score of critical thinking skills achieved by students was in a normal limit. Also, the total score of critical thinking dispositions revealed the students' positive tendency. But, with regard to the reported scores from other similar schools of the world, administrators and teachers should pay more attention to their educational planning in developing cultivating critical thinking skills

Telepraxis: An innovative educational method

"Telephone" has been used as an educational device for educational purposes in several university centers in the world. Nowadays, "Teleconference ", "Teleconsultation ", "Telemedicine" and "Computerized methods are common educational methods. Telephone in this study was used as an educational means to practice certain educational and professional subjects. In this study, telephone was used to practice important educational points by medical students. The method was called "Telepraxis" and the present paper introduces this innovative educational experience and reports the results of measuring the rate of students' satisfaction. In this study 4 different educational courses were presented to 508 students at pre-hospital, clerkship, and residency stages. The program was implemented for 15 sessions and at the end of each session, we inquired students' viewpoints about our suggested method by using a Lickert's type questionnaire that was designed with 24 characteristics of an effective educational method. We calculated the students' satisfaction index and compared the scores applying student T-Test. The participants' mean satisfaction index was 84.4%, which was significant/v higher than those of unsatisfied, [p < .001] The satisfication index for the students in clerkship stage was higher than that of the prehospital students or residents. Telepraxis in 4 courses of primary surgery, health cares, semiology, and CPR skills, was' approved by the learners on all the 24 traits of an effective teaching method