The challenge of discovering the threshold concepts of medical research areas: A bibliometrics-based approach
Section snippets
Background
Several pedagogical theories have been developed over the last XX century. As the educational community took into consideration the frailty of traditional methods to overcome globalized challenges, new approaches emerged [1]. Overall, they are characterized by the central positioning of the student in the learning process and the rejection of the vertical replication of knowledge [2]. In this context, Freire’s pedagogy of freedom [3], Piaget’s operative model [4] and constructivism principles
The hypothesis
Bibliometrics, as a part of the scientometrics (the quantitative study of science), is the research on scientific communication, analysing specifically data from publications, citations, and journals. Concerning the nature of the TC, they are words or a set of words that have a special meaning in a particular context, which is the learning subject. In that way, this definition seems to be similar to a keyword, used in the computer language to highlight the content of a digital object. In
Evaluation of the hypothesis
Several methods have been reported in the previous scientific literature. These methods are mainly based on qualitative assessment. However, none of them provides an objective, reproducible and quantitative approach. In this regard, the proposed hypothesis supposes a new insight into TC identification
Consequences of the hypothesis and discussion
In conclusion, we elucidate the application of bibliometrics as a base for a new methodology for the identification of medical TC to better adjust course and curricula design to the inherent complexes and uncertainty conditions of the current medical profession. In comparison with qualitative methods, our approach is grounded in bibliometrics and it constitutes a quantitative, objective, and reproducible procedure. Thus, medical lecturers could also explore the pedagogical applications of data
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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