title: Improvement of nursing students' critical thinking skills through problem-based learning in the People's Republic of China: a quasi-experimental study.
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.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, and School of Nursing, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. haobinfriend@163.com
authors.forename: Haobin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Wipada
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kunaviktikul
authors.forename: Areewan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Klunklin
authors.forename: Beverly A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004506:Education, Nursing; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017145:Models, Educational; D011340:Problem Solving; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D013338:Students, Nursing; D013624:Taiwan; D013850:Thinking