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Integrating Concept Maps into a Medical Student Oncology Curriculum

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Abstract

Expanding frontiers of knowledge have prompted medical schools to reconsider how best to promote learning in the face of information overload. Concept mapping (CM) promotes knowledge retention and integration. Students have perceived CM positively in prior studies, but the feasibility and utility of integrating CM into a medical student oncology curriculum as a learning and assessment tool have not been described. At the University of California, San Francisco, 152 medical students in a second-year hematology/oncology course produced concept maps about a single cancer type over 4 weeks. We collected student evaluations about CM. Two of three graders independently scored each map using a standard rubric. We compared CM scores with USMLE Step 1 scores and clerkship grades using regression. All students produced a concept map. Student perception was mixed, and students provided feedback to improve CM utility as a learning tool. Grading was feasible, and inter-rater reliability was high. CM scores did not predict USMLE Step 1 scores or clerkship grades. CM was feasible as a learning tool, and we present strategies based on student feedback and literature review to improve utility. CM was feasible and reliable as an assessment tool; additional validity evidence may improve utility. Future studies should explore whether CM integrated into medical student oncology curricula early, serially, and collaboratively, with iterative practice and feedback, may predict meaningful learning and performance outcomes.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 505 Parnassus Ave., San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA

    Sam Brondfield & Gerald Hsu

  2. UCSF Hematology Oncology, 505 Parnassus Ave., UCSF Box #1270, San Francisco, CA, 94143-1270, USA

    Sam Brondfield

  3. Department of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, 333 City Blvd. West, Orange, CA, 92868, USA

    Allen Seol

  4. Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, 600 16th St., San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA

    Katherine Hyland

  5. Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 533 Parnassus Ave., San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA

    Arianne Teherani

Authors
  1. Sam Brondfield
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  2. Allen Seol
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  3. Katherine Hyland
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  4. Arianne Teherani
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  5. Gerald Hsu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sam Brondfield.

Ethics declarations

The UCSF Institutional Review Board approved this study as exempt from review.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Supplemental Figure 1

A. Scatterplot of concept map scores displaying inter-rater reliability between authors G.H. and S.B., with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.90 (n = 71 concept maps). B. Scatterplot of concept map scores displaying inter-rater reliability between authors G.H. and A.S., with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.91 (n = 68 concept maps). (PPTX 87 kb)

(PPTX 87 kb)

Supplemental Figure 2

Box plot displaying scores from all graded student concept maps (n = 141). (PPTX 65 kb)

Supplemental Figure 3

A. Scatterplot of USMLE Step 1 scores over concept map scores (n = 141 students) with best-fit regression line (r = − 0.02). B. Scatterplot of mean clerkship grades over concept map scores (n = 125 students) with best-fit regression line (r = 0.04). (PPTX 122 kb)

(PPTX 125 kb)

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Brondfield, S., Seol, A., Hyland, K. et al. Integrating Concept Maps into a Medical Student Oncology Curriculum. J Canc Educ 36, 85–91 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-019-01601-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-019-01601-7

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