Introduction: Development of critical thinking and Procedural skills has remained a serious and considerable challenge throughout the nursing educational system in Iran. Conventional methods of teaching such as lecture, as the dominant method used in higher educational systems, is a passive style which ignores critical thinking. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the effects of instruction by concept-mapping and conventional methods in fundamentals of nursing on critical thinking skills in Tehran nursing students in 2014.

Methods: This quasi-experimental study was carried out on 70 nursing students, who were selected through convenient sampling method, then divided randomly into two equal experimental and control groups, in the Clinical Skills Center of Tehran Nursing and Midwifery School. Educational content was presented in the forms of concept-mapping for the experimental group and lecture in the control group. Data collection included a demographic information and California Critical Thinking Skills (form B) questionnaire; They were filled at the beginning and end of the fourth week of the Instructional period. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (v. 21), using descriptive and analytical statistics, at the significance level of 0.05.

Results: Before the intervention, the mean of the total critical thinking skill score was 9.71 ± 2.66 in the concept mapping group and 9.64 ± 2.14 in the lecture group, and the difference was not significant (P = 0.121); but, after the intervention, the critical thinking skill score was 15.20 ± 2.71 in the intervention group and 10.25 ± 2.06 in the control group, which had a significant difference (P = 0.003).

Conclusions: Using concept mapping strategy in the education of nursing students may lead to developing critical thinking skills as one of the important missions of higher level education. Therefore, it is recommended to employ this method in clinical nursing education.