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

Full Abstract

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.

Author information

Author/s: Yuan, Haobin (H); Kunaviktikul, Wipada (W); Klunklin, Areewan (A); Williams, Beverly A (BA);

Affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, and School of Nursing, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. haobinfriend(-atsign-)163.com

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Nursing & health sciences (Nurs Health Sci), published in Australia. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Mar; vol 10 (issue 1) : pp 70-6

Dates: Created 2008/02/08; Completed 2008/05/06;

PMID: 18257835, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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