OBJECTIVE

The objective of the study was to determine the effectiveness of self-directed learning (SDL) strategy in dentistry by comparing it with lecture. Specifically, the objectives were to describe the students' perception of their learning experience after each TL strategy, compare the students' cognitive performance, determine whether certain student characteristics influence these two variables, and identify whether these two variables are correlated.

Total enumeration was done in the selection of student-respondents. Using a two-treatment counterbalanced experimental research design, two kinds of data were collected after completion of each TL strategy – post-test scores that indicate the students' cognitive performance (lowest score is zero; highest score is 20) and Assessment of University Teaching Activities Questionnaire (A.U.T.A.Q.) results, indicating students' perceptions on their learning experience (5-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree).

Results showed that there is a statistically significant difference between the total mean of A.U.T.A.Q. after SDL (M=3.94, SD=.480) and lecture (M=3.74, SD=.658); p =.024. Statistically significant difference (p .05). Nationality and sex did not significantly affect the students' perceptions and cognitive performance except in the third year level. Finally, there is no correlation between these two factors.

It can be concluded that SDL is as equally effective as lectures, but it must be used cautiously at lower year levels where lecture is still more beneficial. Lower year levels exhibited higher cognitive performance after lecture while the higher year levels displayed higher cognitive performance after SDL.

BACKGROUND

Ahigh-quality measurement tool is essential to accurately assess the innovative teaching strategies in health professions education. The Blended Teaching Assessment Tool (BTAT) aims to evaluate quality blended teaching or instructional delivery in Philippine health science programs. However, there is a lack of studies examining students' cognitive processes to support the validity of questionnaires.

Cognitive interviewing (CI) was employed to determine whether students interpreted and responded to the items correctly. Content analysis was done using Tourangeau's Cognitive framework. Four CIs were conducted by an expert moderator and note-taker with a total of 8 health science students (2 groups with 3 members, and 2 one-on-one interview) for around 1 to 2 hours via Zoom following a retroactive approach with verbal and spontaneous probing, guided by a semi-structured interview questionnaire.

Various issues related to comprehension, retrieval, judgment, and response were identified, leading to significant revisions of the tool from 82 items across 8 dimensions to 53 items across 5 dimensions. The challenges included unfamiliar terminology, ambiguous phrasing, complex statements, inconsistencies and irrelevance to students' real-life experiences. These findings emphasize the importance of students' feedback in enhancing the validity and reliability of assessment tools.

The Cognitive Interview identified crucial issues in comprehension, retrieval, judgment, and response, making it essential for developing the Blended Teaching Assessment Tool and ensuring valid responses on the quality of blended teaching and learning delivery.

INTRODUCTION: Medical errors commonly occur in medical imaging departments. These errors are frequently influenced by patient safety culture. This study aimed to develop a suitable patient safety culture assessment tool for medical imaging departments. METHODS: Staff members of a teaching hospital medical imaging department were invited to complete the generic short version of the Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ). Internal consistency and reliability were evaluated using Cronbach's α. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to examine model fit. A cut-off of 60% was used to define the percentage positive responses (PPR). PPR values were compared between occupational groups. RESULTS: A total of 300 complete responses were received and the response rate was 75.4%. In reliability analysis, the Cronbach's α for the original 32-item SAQ was 0.941. Six subscales did not demonstrate good fit with CFA. A modified five-subscale, 22-item model (SAQ-MI) showed better fit (goodness-to-fit index ≥0.9, comparative fit index ≥ 0.9, Tucker-Lewis index ≥0.9 and root mean square error of approximation ≤0.08). The Cronbach's α for the 22 items was 0.921. The final five subscales were safety and teamwork climate, job satisfaction, stress recognition, perception of management and working condition, with PPR of 62%, 68%, 57%, 61% and 60%, respectively. Statistically significant differences in PPR were observed between radiographers, doctors and others occupational groups. CONCLUSION The modified five-factor, 22-item SAQ-MI is a suitable tool for the evaluation of patient safety culture in a medical imaging department. Differences in patient safety culture exist between occupation groups, which will inform future intervention studies.
Humans ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Patient Safety ; Attitude of Health Personnel ; Diagnostic Imaging ; Reproducibility of Results ; Male ; Female ; Adult ; Job Satisfaction ; Factor Analysis, Statistical ; Middle Aged ; Hospitals, Teaching ; Safety Management ; Organizational Culture ; Medical Errors/prevention & control*

Synthetic biology is a crucial tool for the development of the bio-industry and bio-economy, representing a significant aspect of new quality productive forces. As a core course for graduate students in bioengineering, Synthetic Biology plays a vital role in ensuring the supply of essential talents for the development of the bio-industry in the new era. To better serve regional economic development and provide high-level talents for China's progress in the bio-industry, we analyzed typical issues encountered in the past teaching activities, set up a multi-disciplinary teaching team, optimized the course contents, adjusted the teaching mode, and mobilized students' learning interest. With the application of scientific research project as the starting point, we guided students to think and discuss deeply through the simulation of application writing and project defense, which improved students' critical thinking and innovative thinking. With industrialization as a focus, we explored a new training model combining production, education, and research through the joint practice base of the university and enterprises introduced typical cases of biomanufacturing to encourage students to engage in scientific research. The teaching reform significantly enhances the comprehensive abilities and national sentiments of graduate students. This paper hopes to serve as a reference for colleagues engaged in teaching in this field.
Synthetic Biology/education* ; Teaching ; China ; Humans

Protein Engineering and Enzyme Engineering is a professional core course for life science-related majors in higher education, aiming to help students apply theoretical knowledge to engineering practice. The rapid development of biomanufacturing has placed new demands on the training of protein and enzyme engineers. However, due to the complexity and strong interdisciplinary nature of the course contents, traditional offline teaching modes have poor teaching performance and are unable to meet the era's demand for high-tech innovative talents in the field of biomanufacturing. To solve the above problems, we carried out the exploration and practice of blended teaching in Protein Engineering and Enzyme Engineering. We designed the teaching philosophy characterized by collaboration of online and offline learning, integration of pre-class preparation, in-class learning, and post-class review, linkage of online platforms, learning resources, teachers, and students, and enhancement via scientific research, scientific contests, course experiments, production practice, and lesson learning. We developed a three-phase (pre-class, in-class, and post-class) teaching program and established a two-level (online-offline) teaching evaluation mechanism. This teaching mode upholds the student-oriented concept, strengthens the deep integration of theory and practice, and focuses on cultivating students' innovative thinking and practical ability. The practical results show that this teaching mode can improve the teaching quality of Protein Engineering and Enzyme Engineering, enhance students' scientific and technological innovation ability, and meet the national demand for biomanufacturing talents.
Protein Engineering ; Teaching ; Enzymes/genetics* ; Humans

Environmental Microbiology, as a compulsory foundational course for the major of environmental and ecological engineering. Its knowledge system not only lays a profound theoretical foundation but also evinces a close-knit nexus to practical applications in environmental protection and ecological restoration. This course thus serves as an outstanding platform facilitating both teaching reforms and practical innovations of professional courses. With Environmental Microbiology as a paradigmatic illustration, this paper concentrates on addressing issues like archaic course contents and enervating teaching approaches, with the aspiration of augmenting students' professional acuities, practical dexterities, and innovation and entrepreneurial aptitudes. In light of the aforesaid aim, we initiated an all-encompassing probe into the teaching reform and practicable paradigms from the perspective of amalgamating professional education with innovation-steered stratagems. Across multiple fronts, comprehensive reformative undertakings were implemented, subsuming the optimization and reconfiguration of course contents, the exploration of sundry teaching methodologies, and the scientific erection of an evaluation system. Ultimately, a nascent teaching model dubbed "three-dimensional, six-loop and five-collaborative" was formed. This series of comprehensive and innovative reform measures has not only substantially augmented the profundity and extensiveness of professional knowledge, permeating into the core of disciplinary essence, but also remarkably bolstered students' practical operational capabilities and innovative thinking patterns, thereby catalyzing their transformation into well-rounded individuals with a competitive edge. By virtue of these efforts, a solid foundation has been firmly laid for the teaching reform of Environmental Microbiology and the cultivation of high-caliber environmental professionals in the contemporary era, heralding a new chapter in the development of environmental education.
Environmental Microbiology ; Teaching ; Education, Professional/methods* ; Curriculum

Experimental Acupuncture and Moxibustion, as an interdisciplinary course, integrates traditional acupuncture and moxibustion with modern science. It is an important way for cultivating students' scientific thinking and innovation. The teaching group of Experimental Acupuncture and Moxibustion in Shandong university of TCM developed the content of courses under the guidance of talent construction of "emerging medicine discipline", aiming to cultivate the talents for the upright and innovation of acupuncture and moxibustion, and being abide to the advanced teaching concepts of students' cognitive law and outcome based education. Base on teaching design, teaching mode, curriculum ideological and political development, and teaching evaluation, a series of new measures have been implemented, e.g. "two-line, three-stage and eight-step measures", "six dimensions and five combinations" and "five combinations and three measure gauges". Through practice and exploration, the students' satisfaction, the innovation and creativity, and teaching ability of teachers have been enhanced. These reforms could provide the new approach to the development of the first-class courses related to traditional Chinese medicine.
Moxibustion/standards* ; Humans ; Acupuncture/education* ; Curriculum ; Acupuncture Therapy/methods* ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; China ; Teaching

Integrated medical courses are one of the key models for the development and transformation of modern medical education. Modular-based integrated courses set higher standards for knowledge, skills and quality objectives. This article primarily discusses the specific practices of teaching reform in the integrated medical course of Frontiers of Infection and Immunity for eight-year program at Air Force Medical University. It covers the selection and integration of teaching content, innovative application of various teaching methods, diversified teaching evaluation and feedback, and the teaching team building. The course not only deepens students' knowledge and promotes their creative abilities but also enhances their comprehensive literacy and international perspective, thus effectively preparing high-quality medical talents for future challenges in the medical field.
Humans ; Education, Medical/methods* ; Teaching ; Curriculum ; Immunity ; Infections/immunology*

Objective To explore the effects of peer assistance model based on mini-clinical evaluation exercise (Mini-CEX) combined with direct observation of procedural skill (DOPS) in the teaching of autoimmune liver diseases (AILDs). Methods A total of 115 residents receiving training in the Department of Gastroenterology of Xijing Hospital were selected and divided into a control group and an experimental group according to the order in which they came to the department. The control group received traditional teaching mode, while the experimental group underwent peer assistance model based on Mini-CEX combined with DOPS. Results The experimental group showed significantly higher scores in both clinical competence and medical record documentation compared to the control group. In addition, the experimental group reported higher satisfaction levels in terms of self-learning ability, learning interest, communication skills and cooperation ability. The overall satisfaction of the experimental group is higher than that of the control group. Conclusion The use of peer assisted learning mode based on Mini-CEX and DOPS in the AILD teaching could improve the teaching effects.
Humans ; Autoimmune Diseases/therapy* ; Liver Diseases/therapy* ; Male ; Female ; Peer Group ; Clinical Competence ; Adult ; Teaching ; Learning

The Principle of Biotechnology is a compulsory course for undergraduates majoring in bioengineering at Zhejiang University of Technology. In response to the "Double First-Class" initiative and in order to improve the teaching effect of this course and the quality of talent training, we reformed the teaching of Principle of Biotechnology, the core course in bioengineering. Specifically, we reorganized the teaching contents, improved the process management of teaching and learning, and implemented multi-dimensional teaching practice. These measures improved teaching quality and promoted the achievement of training goals, which was of great significance for developing "First-Class" disciplines.
Biotechnology/education* ; Teaching ; China ; Curriculum ; Bioengineering/education* ; Universities