Abstract:

Objective To explore a novel teaching model of health policies in order to stimulate students' interest in learning, enhance their thinking skills, and improve the effect of classroom teaching. Methods Junior medical students of eight-year program who were enrolled in 2011 were randomly selected and divided into the experiment group (n=20) and control group (n=20). The case teaching method based on the system dynamics (SD) was adopted for the experiment group and traditional teaching method was adopted for the control group. The effect of SD-based case teaching method for health policies was analyzed and evaluated by the class observation and questionnaire survey. Results The classroom participation and results of response of the experiment group were better than those of the control group. Survey results indicated that 90% (18/20) of students of the experiment group favored the SD-based case teaching; 78% (14/18) of students believed that this teaching method would improve the learning interest; and 60% (12/20) of students thought that they obtained methods and ways of scientific decisionmaking. Conclusion SD-based case teaching method for health policies can stimulate the learning interest of students, inspire their thinking, and cultivate the awareness of scientific decision-making. It is worth being referenced and promoted for the teaching of health policies.

Key words: case-based teaching, system dynamics, health policy