A trial of patient-oriented problem-solving system for immunology teaching in China: a comparison with dialectic lectures

BMC Medical Education

Research Article

Sheng Guo¹  Junfeng Han¹  Zhiren Zhang¹  Wei Liu¹  Yuzhang Wu¹ 

[1] Institute of Immunology, Third Military Medical University of PLA, Gaotanyan Main Street 30, 400038, Chongqing, People's Republic of China;

关键词: Patient-oriented problem-solving;    Medical education;    Immunology;    China;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6920-13-11

 received in 2012-10-22, accepted in 2013-01-25,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe most common teaching method used in China is lecturing, but recently, efforts have been widely undertaken to promote the transition from teacher-centered to student-centered education. The patient-oriented problem-solving (POPS) system is an innovative teaching-learning method that permits students to work in small groups to solve clinical problems, promotes self-learning, encourages clinical reasoning and develops long-lasting memory. To our best knowledge, however, POPS has never been applied in teaching immunology in China. The aim of this study was to develop POPS in teaching immunology and assess students’ and teachers’ perception to POPS.Methods321 second-year medical students were divided into two groups: I and II. Group I, comprising 110 students, was taught by POPS, and 16 immunology teachers witnessed the whole teaching process. Group II including the remaining 211 students was taught through traditional lectures. The results of the pre- and post-test of both groups were compared. Group I students and teachers then completed a self-structured feedback questionnaire for analysis before a discussion meeting attended only by the teachers was held.ResultsSignificant improvement in the mean difference between the pre- and post-test scores of those in Groups I and II was seen, demonstrating the effectiveness of POPS teaching. Most students responded that POPS facilitates self-learning, helps them to understand topics and creates interest, and 88.12% of students favored POPS over simple lectures. Moreover, while they responded that POPS facilitated student learning better than lectures, teachers pointed out that limited teaching resources would make it difficult for wide POPS application in China.ConclusionsWhile POPS can break up the monotony of dialectic lectures and serve as a better teaching method, it may not be feasible for the current educational environment in China. The main reason for this is the relative shortage of teaching resources such as space, library facilities and well-trained teachers.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© zhang et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.