Effects of case-based teaching method on medical postgraduates' attitudes toward statistics

Abstract

Objective To investigate medical postgraduates' attitudes toward statistics and evaluate the effects of intervention with case-based learning (CBL). Methods Control experiment and questionnaire method were used. Totally 243 medical postgraduates from the Medical University of the Air Force were divided into two classes, Ninety of them were taught partly by CBL as experiment group, and 153 students were taught by classic method as control group. Postgraduates were measured twice by pre-form and post-form of the Chinese version of survey of attitudes toward statistics scale (SATS) in beginning and end of the course, and the effect of case-based teaching method to remedy the negative attitudes was valuated. Results In the beginning of the course, postgraduates' SATS score was(4.76±0.81)points, the score in the value dimension was relative high, affect dimension and cognitive competence dimension were moderate and difficulty dimension was low. Postgraduates' SATS score of the experimental group and the control group were (4.80±0.79) points and (4.74±0.69) points, There was no significant difference in SATS score between two groups in the beginning of the course (t=0.62, P=0.55). After the course, postgraduates' SATS score changes of the experimental group and the control group were [-0.12(-0.40, -0.02)] points and [-0.27(-0.56, -0.11)] points, there was a significant difference in SATS score changes between two groups (Z=1.98, P=0.048). On the difficult dimension, postgradute's score change of the experimental group and control group were [-0.25(-0.45, -0.04)] points and [-0.27(-0.54, -0.17)] points, and there was no statistic differernce between two groups (Z=0.37, P=0.710). Conclusions Medical postgraduates'attitudes toward statistics are acceptable and they thought statistics was a difficult course. To some extent, case-based teaching method can remedy the negative attitudes to statistics held by medical postgraduates, but the effect on remedying the difficult feeling to statistics was not found. Teachers should pay more attention to students' attitudes toward statistics in medical postgraduate training, and try to provide necessary interventions by adopting different teaching methods. Key words: Medical postgraduate; Medical statistics; Attitudes toward statistics; Case-based teaching