Influence of students' autonomous learning ability on problem-based learning — taking medical psy-chology course as an example

Abstract

Objective Studies have shown that problem based learning (PBL) can improve the students' of autonomous learning. However, it is unclear whether students' autonomous learning will affect students' evaluation in teaching. This study took medical psychology course as an example to explore the influence of medical students' autonomous learning on teaching effect. Methods 43 8-year program medical students of Grade 2010 and 2011 were enrolled in this study. Scale was used to assess medical students' autonomous learning before the start of the teaching. Self-made questionnaire was used to survey the students' evaluation in teaching. Linear correlation analysis was used to detect the relationship between medical students' autonomous learning and students' evaluation in teaching and their examination results. Results Medical students' autonomous learning is significantly positively correlated to the students' evaluation of teaching (P<0.05). The corre-lation coefficient between learning motivation and PBL enhanced learning interest or PBL enhanced in-formation utilization ability was high (r=0.507 and 0.536, respectively). It showed that students with stronger autonomous learning had more positive evaluation of teaching. The students' learning motivation was also positively correlated to the test score (r=0.416, P=0.006). Students with stronger learn-ing motivation had higher test score in the final exam. Conclusion These results indicate that the relation-ship between the students' autonomous learning and teaching is bidirectional. The students with more powerful of autonomous learning will be more active in the process of teaching, and the positive experience will promote their autonomous learning in turn. Key words: Autonomous learning ability; Problem-based learning; Medical psychology