A PERCEPTIONS ASSESSMENT OF PATIENT-ORIENTED PROBLEM-SOLVING TEACHING STRATEGY FOR MEDICAL IMMUNOLOGY COURSE IN CHINESE STUDENTS

This research assessed the perceptions of students to patient-oriented problem-solving (POPS) teaching strategy in a medical immunology course in China. Data were collected from second-year students (N=71; 58% males, 42% females) who were offered lecture-based instruction and POPS teaching strategy during October - November 2015 at Lanzhou University. Afterward, students' response and capability perception scores to POPS teaching strategy were evaluated using questionnaires. The majority of students (89.02%) favored POPS teaching strategy over traditional lectures. Students responded that POPS improves their intrinsic motivation (91.55%), learning interest (94.37%), self-directed learning skills (92.96%) and feasible for medical education (87.32%). Compared to the traditional lectures, the POPS can improve markedly their learning motivation (p=0.03), clinical reasoning ability (p=0.01), and clinical problem-solving ability (p=0.02). The implementation of POPS in medical courses will help students improving their learning motivation, problem solving abilities, which is feasible for current medical immunology education in China.