Teaching for clinical reasoning – helping students make the conceptual links

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Clinical teachers complain that students struggle to apply what they have learnt theoretically in the clinical context. Conceptual understanding is important for clinical reasoning. Making connections between concepts is important for conceptual understanding. Medical teachers can help students make the conceptual connections that are necessary for clinical reasoning. Concept mapping is a useful teaching and learning strategy for linking concepts.

Figure 1. A student's concept map of the relationship between leukoplakia and HIV infection.

Figure 2. Concept map of specific diagnostic process.