Promoção de competências de pensamento crítico em estudantes de enfermagem

Abstract

Critical thinking is increasingly essential in all areas of human intervention, specially to problem solving and decision making in nursing. The literature shows the need to invest in active learning methodologies, namely cooperative learning, in order to develop critical thinking. In this context, we intend with this quantitative, quasi-experimental study, with pre and post-test design, to evaluate the use of cooperative groups in the promotion of critical thinking skills. For the evaluation was applied the Critical Thinking Test. The non-probabilistic sample consisted of twentyfour nursing students, mostly female and aged between 18 to 33 years. The results shown statistically significant differences in the analysis skill, regarding the comparison on solutions presented for a problem (p = 0.00), and in the evaluation skill, concerning the credibility of affirmations and robustness of inferential relationships (p = 0.04). The use of cooperative groups has proved to be important in promoting some of the critical thinking skills in observation. However, to reinforce this hypothesis it is necessary to carry out longer interventions and research studies.