An efficacy evaluation of the PBL teaching in neurosurgical clinical training

Abstract

Objective To explore the effect and experience of problem-based (PBL) teaching in neurosurgical clinical training and improve the quality of the neurosurgical clinical training. Methods 600 clinical medical students of Grade 2011 in their probation in our department of neurosurgery were chosen as the subjects of study and were randomly divided into the experimental (PBL, 15 groups, 20 people/group, over 300 people) and control groups (CBL+ LBL, 15 groups, 20 people/group, over 300 people). In experimental group, PBL which is a problem-based, student-centered and teacher-directed pedagogy was adopted. In control group, CBL (case-based learning) + LBL (lecture-based learning) were adopted. After probation, two groups of students had the unified test and assessed their teaching methods by questionnaire survey and at the same time, the questionnaire survey about PBL' impact on the various aspects was done only to experimental group students. SPSS 15.0 software was used to do statistical analysis and data were processed by description analysis, t test, Mann-Whitney U test and correlation analysis. Results The scores of theoretical knowledge and general ability in PBL group [(40.57±3.24), (41.23±4.56) individually] were higher than these in control group [(37.21±4.05), (36.51±4.11) individually]. The differences demonstrated statistically meanings. Through the surveys, the students in experimental group showed the high satisfaction (97.0%, n=291) in PBL teaching. Most of the students considered that their abilities of team cooperation (96.7%, n=290), and self-directed learning (92.7%, n=278) were improved by PBL teaching. The students in experimental group illustrated their attitudes in satisfaction of teaching; interests of clinical training, participation of teaching and understanding of knowledge were superior to the control group. The differences demonstrated statistically meanings. Conclusion PBL teaching got a good effect in neurosurgical clinical training. This method, which improved students' participation and motivation of study and contributed to the training of medical students' comprehensive abilities, is suitable for modern neurosurgical clinical training. Key words: Problem-based learning; Case-based learning; Lecture-based learning; Neurosurgery; Clinical teaching