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The Benefits of Using Case Study Focussed, Problem Based Learning Approaches to Unit Design for Biomedical Science Students

As part of the Biomedical Sciences undergraduate degree course students are required to apply biological principles to the interpretation of clinical case studies and the diagnosis of patients. Case study-based learning, i.e., application of knowledge to patient diagnosis, is new to most students as...

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Autores principales: Posner, Mareike G., Dempsey, Nina C., Unsworth, Amanda J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10340524/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37457621
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/bjbs.2023.11494
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author Posner, Mareike G.
Dempsey, Nina C.
Unsworth, Amanda J.
author_facet Posner, Mareike G.
Dempsey, Nina C.
Unsworth, Amanda J.
author_sort Posner, Mareike G.
collection PubMed
description As part of the Biomedical Sciences undergraduate degree course students are required to apply biological principles to the interpretation of clinical case studies and the diagnosis of patients. Case study-based learning, i.e., application of knowledge to patient diagnosis, is new to most students as case studies do not form part of non-applied A level courses in biological sciences. This approach is an example of Problem Based Learning (PBL) which has been shown to support higher levels of student learning, encouraging critical thinking and analysis. PBL approaches have also been shown to increase academic satisfaction and student engagement. In recent years we have observed a downwards trend in student engagement and historically student performance in applied case study-based assessments to be lower than that observed for assessments based on detailing fundamental biological principles. We hypothesised that PBL teaching delivery would support students in preparing for case study-based assessments, helping them to demonstrate their critical evaluation and problem-solving skills, and hence, improve student performance. We also hypothesised that the student learning experience would be enhanced by a PBL teaching delivery approach which would improve overall engagement. We therefore redesigned a second year Biomedical Sciences degree haematology and clinical biochemistry unit: “Blood Science,” with a stronger focus on PBL, including case study focussed activities throughout the unit. We subsequently analysed whether this PBL-focussed unit design improved student experience and feedback, student engagement and student confidence for biomedical science undergraduate students. We present here, our teaching strategy and the impact our changes had on student feedback for the 21/22 and 22/23 academic years. Our findings demonstrate that case study-based activities and tutorial PBL exercises, when incorporated into the curriculum design, can improve student experience in the Biomedical Sciences and other biological science undergraduate degree courses.
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spelling pubmed-103405242023-07-14 The Benefits of Using Case Study Focussed, Problem Based Learning Approaches to Unit Design for Biomedical Science Students Posner, Mareike G. Dempsey, Nina C. Unsworth, Amanda J. Br J Biomed Sci Health Archive As part of the Biomedical Sciences undergraduate degree course students are required to apply biological principles to the interpretation of clinical case studies and the diagnosis of patients. Case study-based learning, i.e., application of knowledge to patient diagnosis, is new to most students as case studies do not form part of non-applied A level courses in biological sciences. This approach is an example of Problem Based Learning (PBL) which has been shown to support higher levels of student learning, encouraging critical thinking and analysis. PBL approaches have also been shown to increase academic satisfaction and student engagement. In recent years we have observed a downwards trend in student engagement and historically student performance in applied case study-based assessments to be lower than that observed for assessments based on detailing fundamental biological principles. We hypothesised that PBL teaching delivery would support students in preparing for case study-based assessments, helping them to demonstrate their critical evaluation and problem-solving skills, and hence, improve student performance. We also hypothesised that the student learning experience would be enhanced by a PBL teaching delivery approach which would improve overall engagement. We therefore redesigned a second year Biomedical Sciences degree haematology and clinical biochemistry unit: “Blood Science,” with a stronger focus on PBL, including case study focussed activities throughout the unit. We subsequently analysed whether this PBL-focussed unit design improved student experience and feedback, student engagement and student confidence for biomedical science undergraduate students. We present here, our teaching strategy and the impact our changes had on student feedback for the 21/22 and 22/23 academic years. Our findings demonstrate that case study-based activities and tutorial PBL exercises, when incorporated into the curriculum design, can improve student experience in the Biomedical Sciences and other biological science undergraduate degree courses. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-06-29 /pmc/articles/PMC10340524/ /pubmed/37457621 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/bjbs.2023.11494 Text en Copyright © 2023 Posner, Dempsey and Unsworth. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Health Archive
Posner, Mareike G.
Dempsey, Nina C.
Unsworth, Amanda J.
The Benefits of Using Case Study Focussed, Problem Based Learning Approaches to Unit Design for Biomedical Science Students
title The Benefits of Using Case Study Focussed, Problem Based Learning Approaches to Unit Design for Biomedical Science Students
title_full The Benefits of Using Case Study Focussed, Problem Based Learning Approaches to Unit Design for Biomedical Science Students
title_fullStr The Benefits of Using Case Study Focussed, Problem Based Learning Approaches to Unit Design for Biomedical Science Students
title_full_unstemmed The Benefits of Using Case Study Focussed, Problem Based Learning Approaches to Unit Design for Biomedical Science Students
title_short The Benefits of Using Case Study Focussed, Problem Based Learning Approaches to Unit Design for Biomedical Science Students
title_sort benefits of using case study focussed, problem based learning approaches to unit design for biomedical science students
topic Health Archive
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10340524/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37457621
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/bjbs.2023.11494
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