Improvement of nursing students' critical thinking skills through problem-based learning in the People's Republic of China: A quasi-experimental study

• Main Authors: Yuan H., Kunaviktikul W., Klunklin A., Williams B.A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-38949119345&partnerID=40&md5=e57f14bf7cc479d166575832042d3dfc; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18257835; http://cmuir.cmu.ac.th/handle/6653943832/4326
• Institution: Chiang Mai University

A quasi-experimental, two-group pretest-post-test design was conducted to examine the effect of problem-based learning on the critical thinking skills of 46 Year 2 undergraduate nursing students in the People's Republic of China. The California Critical Thinking Skills Test Form A, Chinese-Taiwanese version was used as both a pretest and as a post-test for a semester-long nursing course. There was no significant difference in critical thinking skills at pretest, whereas, significant differences in critical thinking skills existed between the problem-based learning and lecture groups at post-test. The problem-based learning students had a significantly greater improvement on the overall California Critical Thinking Skills Test, analysis, and induction subscale scores compared with the lecture students. Problem-based learning fostered nursing students' critical thinking skills. © 2008 The Authors Journal Compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.