Application of Case-PBL method combined with SPSS software in teaching of medical statistics course

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the effect of case-PBL method and case-PBL method combined with SPSS software on the teaching of medical statistics for medical undergraduates. Methods Students from two classes major in experimental medicine from Nantong University Xingling College were selected as Experimental Class 1 (using case-PBL teaching) and Experimental Class 2 (using case-PBL teaching combined with SPSS software). Each class attended lessons for five times. The teachers would send cases for each lesson one week in advance, and students would form into groups to access information, learn and discuss independently. Representatives from groups spoke in class, members would complement and discuss, while teachers offered guidance, review, analysis and summary. We shortened the discussion time in the class, and added instructions on the operation steps of SPSS software for case analysis and how to interpret the analysis result correctly in Experiment Class 2. The Control Class received traditional teaching. Questionnaires, process assessment and final assessment were used to evaluate teaching effectiveness. SPSS 21.0 software was used to implement variance analysis and chi-square test for comparison between groups. Results The scores of the two experimental classes were higher than those of the control class in the five process assessments(P<0.05). Experimental Class 2 was the best in three section process assessments including those of t-test, the rank sum test and the straight-line correlation (P<0.05). However, there was no difference in the theoretical test scores among the three classes (P=0.670). 94%-100% of the students in the two experimental classes believed that the teaching effects of the case-PBL method and case-PBL method combined with SPSS software were better than the traditional teaching method (P<0.05) in such areas as stimulating interest in learning, improving learning efficiency, etc. Students in Experimental Class 2 were more prone to think these methods improved teaching effect. Conclusion The case-PBL teaching combined with the application of SPSS software will further help students to systematically grasp the statistical knowledge and cultivate statistical practice ability. However, neither methods will improve students' theoretical test scores. Key words: Problem-based leaning; Case teaching; Medical statistics; Teaching effect