Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Medical education is facing a challenge in meeting society's demands about their health improvement. Due to this, it seems necessary to educate creative and thoughtful staff for health-care system. By this introduction, this study aimed to compare the effect of "learning based on classic education" and "learning based on participatory education" on nursing students critical thinking. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-eight nursing students participated in this study. Students were chosen by census method and were divided into two groups randomly. The California critical thinking questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS v. 19 by descriptive statistics and t-test. RESULTS: The results showed a significant difference between the mean score of critical thinking before and after conducting the "learning based on participatory education" method. Difference between mean score was significant between the two groups. This mean score was more increased in group which "learning based on participatory education" method was conducted. CONCLUSION: The increased score of critical thinking among students with "learning based on participatory education" method showed the welcome of students toward new and dynamic methods of teaching the critical thinking and proved this that critical thinking can be useful in nursing education.