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. 2018 Jun 19;18(1):144.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-018-1232-0.

Assessment of a block curriculum design on medical postgraduates' perception towards biostatistics: a cohort study

Chen Li  1 , Ling Wang  1 , Yuhai Zhang  1 , Chanjuan Li  1 , Yongyong Xu  1 , Lei Shang  1 , Jielai Xia  2
Affiliations

Assessment of a block curriculum design on medical postgraduates' perception towards biostatistics: a cohort study

Chen Li et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: Biostatistics is a key but challenging subject in medical curricula that is usually delivered via a didactic approach in China. However, whether it is the best teaching approach to improve the learner's competency, especially for medical postgraduates is yet to be proved. Therefore, a block curriculum design was initially developed to provide selective education to the postgraduates towards the professional career of their interest. A questionnaire was designed to assess the students' perceptions toward biostatistics as these affective factors might impact the learning process. Thus, the present study aimed to detect whether the new block curriculum design could promote the students' positive perceptions and further improve the course achievement.

Methods: This cohort study investigated and assessed the perceptions toward biostatistics of the first-year postgraduates undergoing traditional teaching and block teaching, respectively. Structural equation modeling was applied to explore the association between perception and course achievement in the block teaching group.

Results: With a response rate of 97.84 and 96.67% from the two cohorts respectively, 499 block teaching postgraduates had more positive perceptions as compared to 465 traditionally teaching postgraduates with Likert 5-point agreement response mean of 3.50 vs. 3.31 for course value, 3.66 vs. 2.97 for course comment, and 4.29 vs. 4.10 for expectation. Moreover, block teaching students presented superior confidence about academic statistical knowledge, and therefore, 77.96% of them approved of the new teaching approach. Age, specialty, research experience, logical thinking capacity, mathematical basics, and computer basics might influence the postgraduates' self-assessment ability (all P < 0.05). Structural equation modeling confirmed a positive correlation between perceptions and the course achievements with a reasonable fit.

Conclusions: The block curriculum design in the biostatistics course improved the postgraduates' positive perception and may have had a positive role in improving postgraduates' achievement in learning biostatistics.

Keywords: Biostatistics; Curriculum design; Medical education; Perceptions.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The Ethics Committee of the Fourth Military Medical University carefully considered and approved the project proposal. A written informed consent was added to the questionnaire and obtained from all participants.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Frequencies for self-assessment ability of statistical knowledge between the traditional teaching group and block teaching group
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Parameter estimates (standard regression coefficients) of the structure equation model for the linear relationship between students’ perceptions and academic achievement on the biostatistics course
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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