Mind Mapping- A Learning Strategy!! Among Dental Students: A Comparative Study

Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness and retention of knowledge of two educational methods such as Mind Mapping and conventional teaching method amongdentalundergraduates. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional comparative interventional study was carried out among nal year dental undergraduates (n=80) at RajarajeshwariDentalCollege&Hospital,Bangalore.Studentsweredividedintotwogroups,GroupA:MindMappingGroup/testgroup(40)andGroupB: control group (40). A pretested questionnaire of 10 questions was used to asesess the knowledge at baseline, immediately after and a week after the intervention.Knowledgegainwastheprimaryoutcomevariableandretentionoftheknowledgeafteraweekisthesecondaryoutcome. Results:At the baseline the mean knowledge score was equal in both the group. Immediately after intervention, the mean knowledge score in the control group increased to 8.8, whereasin the mind map group, it increased to 9.4 and the difference wasfound to be statistically signicant(p = 0.003). One week afterintervention,themeanscoreinthemindmapgroupwassignicantlymorethanthetextgroup(9.3Vs8.6;p=0.003). Conclusion:Theresultsofthestudyshowedthatmindmappingmethodwasmoreeffectiveasateachingandlearningmethodthanthelecturebasedmethod