In veterinary medicine, it is important that students memorize normal values so that if their patient displays and abnormal value, they can flag it for the veterinarian. Students should also recognize if a drug dose that they have calculated is reasonable for the patient in front of them. However, that doesn’t always happen. How do we teach them to think critically about the data they collect?
Now, some might say that what I am describing is not critical thinking; perhaps that is just semantics. Regardless of what we call it, we all need our students to evaluate the information coming at them to decide if it makes sense.
This article has some good ideas for activities to get students to think critically. I think I can use the brain teaser activity (especially given it has a bit of a veterinary focus) for students to realize that they need to judge the information (a cats heart rate of 80 for instance) against what they know to be true (that normal is between 110 and 220). Simply writing down the information in the record without assessing it to be abnormal could spell disaster for the poor kitty.