Analyzing and Comparing the Effects of two Teaching Methods, Student-Centered Versus Teacher-Centered, on the Learning of Biostatistics at SBMU

Because of its widespread needs in different scientific fields, Statistics and Probability theory have gained great importance and medical students as well as students of other medically related disciplines including nursing need to use them especially in their research projects in undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate schools. This article deals with the question of finding the most effective way of teaching the necessary statistical skills to these students so that they can acquire more statistical knowledge and develop better problem solving and decision making strategies. This semi-experimental study has been carried out to compare the effect of teacher-centered and student-centered methods on nursing students’ learning of Biostatistics. The sample includes all the undergraduates of nursing School at SBMU (2006-2007). The sampling method used is convenience and includes 118 subjects. The teaching method is the dependent variable and the amount of material absorbed by the students, their age, marital status, type of housing, average of high school diploma, the grade average of the previous semester, number of family members and their prior experience are the independent variables. The grades of the students in the final exam, was taken as measure of amount of material absorbed by the students. The analysis was carried out using SPSS16 and the statistical tests used were t-test, ANOVA, and correlation test. The data revealed that the average of the students receiving student-based instruction was higher than the other students. However, no statistically significant difference was observed between the control and the experimental group in terms of the amount of teaching material learnt. The data also indicate that marital status, employment status, type of housing and prior experience all have statistically significant effect on the final grade, but none of them along with the teaching method exhibits a significant interaction with the final grade. Also the amount of material learnt by each student is almost directly correlated with his/her average of the previous semester (rp=0.402, p<0.001) and inversely weakly correlated with his/her age (rs=-0.220, p=0.017). Thus one can conclude that student-centered instruction is as effective as the teacher-centered instruction and other factors besides the method of instruction have a significant impact on the student’s learning.

A follow-up survey of graduates at Faculty of Paramedical Sciences of Shahid Beheshti Medical University (1997-2000) done to apply its results in educational planning and guidance of aptitudes

The Higher National Council of Medical Sciences Planning (HNCMSP) in Iran compile and approve educational programs by using expert academic staff, considering the country,s needs and studying the background of establishment of each major in other countries. Since the employment of graduates in occupations related to their majors is of utmost importance in educational planning, this survey has been done to investigate the graduates, employment and the factors affecting it, using a retrospective study.This survey is done on 120 graduates of Laboratory Sciences (LS), Medical Records (MR) and Radiology Technology (RT), at Paramedical Faculty of Shahid Beheshti Medical University (1997-2000).The subjects were randomly selected and given a questionnaire and the data was statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA,Chi-Square, and Exact Fisher’s test (SPSS 15). 63.5 percent of the samples were females and the rest were males with an average age of 35.The coordination between their aptitude and major was highest (61%) in LS graduates, but lowest (21%) in MR graduates. Also the coordination between majors and interest was highest in LS graduates (48.4%).The results indicate that 6% of the subjects were post graduate students, 91% were employed and 9% were jobless.75% of them believed that their jobs were quite related to their majors and interest. They also mentioned the same factors for finding a suitable job (P=0.328).The results show that there is a direct relationship between the students, interest and aptitude on one hand, and their major and interest on the other. Moreover, because of the coordination between the majors and the country’s needs, the rate of unemployment has been found to be very low(9%).These findings can be helpful in reevaluation of educational planning, guidance of aptitudes towards the country’s economic priorities, and having a study of post graduation status.