Table 1 The characteristics of the 16 included studies
From: Effectiveness of problem-based learning in Chinese pharmacy education: a meta-analysis
Study ID | Pharmacy disciplines | Sample size (PBL/LBL) | Participant characteristics | Interventions | Comparator teaching approach | Duration of intervention |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Che [18] | Natural products chemistry | 40/40 | Year three pharmacy students from two classes at a college | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing | One semester |
Total of 12 class hours. | ||||||
The teaching process included preview, search information, laying out the problem, answers, discussion, and effectiveness evaluation. | ||||||
Du et al. [19] | Pharmaceutical formulation design | 43/48 | Year four pharmacy students from one class at a college (43 females and 48 males) | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing | One semester |
There were two PBL tutorial groups and each group consisted of either 21 or 22 students. | ||||||
The teaching process included preview, search information, laying out the problem, answers, discussion, and effectiveness evaluation. | ||||||
Fang et al. [20] | Pharmaceutical analysis | 90/95 | Seventh semester pharmacy students at a university | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing | One semester |
There were nine PBL tutorial groups and each group consisted of 10 students. | ||||||
The teaching process included laying out the learning goal, content and requirements, self-study, search information, group discussion, answers, conclusion, and effectiveness evaluation. | ||||||
Ge et al. [21] | Pharmaceutical affairs, law, and regulation | 57/37 | Year four pharmacy students at a university | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing. Total of 24 class hours. | One semester |
Total of 24 class hours. | ||||||
The teaching process included laying out the problem, self-study, discussion (10–20 min), and teacher summary (15 min). | ||||||
Huang et al. [22] | Biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics | 112/91 | Year three pharmacy students from two classes at a college | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing. Each group consisted of 16 students. | One semester |
Each group consisted of two students. | ||||||
The teaching process included designing cases, group discussion, calculating an experimental program, doing experiments, score grading, and conclusion. | ||||||
Li [23] | Pharmacology of Chinese materia medica | 54/54 | Fifth semester pharmacy students from four classes at a university | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing | One semester |
Each group consisted of either six or seven students. | ||||||
The teaching process included designing cases, group discussion, calculating an experimental program, doing experiments, score grading, and conclusion. | ||||||
Pu [24] | Pharmaceutical analysis | 49/46 | Fifth semester pharmacy students from two classes at a higher vocational college | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing | One semester |
There were seven PBL tutorial groups and each group consisted of seven students. | ||||||
The teaching process included laying out the problem, search information, group discussion, summary, and effectiveness evaluation. | ||||||
Shen [25] | Basic pharmacy | 60/60 | Year one pharmacy students at a college. Age: 17–21 years, mean age 24.7 years (SD, 2.3); 57 females and 63 males | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing | One semester |
There were six PBL tutorial groups and each group consisted of 10 students. | ||||||
The teaching process included laying out an open problem, self-study, group discussion, finding solutions, and effectiveness evaluation. | ||||||
Wang et al. [27] | Pharmaceutical botany | 43/43 | Year one pharmacy students from one class at a university | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing | One semester |
The teaching process included laying out the problem, group discussion, answering, and scoring. | ||||||
Wang et al. [26] | Pharmaceutical literature retrieval | 50/51 | Year three pharmacy students from two classes at a university; 55 females and 46 males | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing. Total of 32 class hours. | Two semesters |
Each group consisted of 6–10 students. | ||||||
Total of 32 class hours. | ||||||
The teaching process included subject design, laying out the problem, search information, discussion, retrospection, summary, and comments. | ||||||
Yang et al. [28] | Pharmaceutical analysis | 30/28 | Year three pharmacy students from two classes at a vocational college | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing | One semester |
Each group consisted of either seven or eight students. | ||||||
The teaching process included laying out the problem, self-study, experimental design, conducting an experiment, discussion, analyzing results, summary, and evaluation. | ||||||
Yang & Li [29] | Organic chemistry | 102/102 | Year two pharmacy students at a college | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing | One semester |
Each group consisted of 6–8 students. | ||||||
The teaching process included laying out the problem, reading guidance, self-study, group discussion, and summary. | ||||||
Yu et al. [30] | Natural medicine chemistry | 40/40 | Year three pharmacy students from one class at a university | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing | One semester |
There were eight PBL groups and each group consisted of five students. | ||||||
The teaching process included information searching, group discussion, designing an experiment, conducting an experiment, evaluating, and completing the experimental program. | ||||||
Zhang [31] | Biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics | 44/45 | Year three pharmacy students from two classes at a college | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing | One semester |
Each group consisted of either four or five students. | ||||||
The teaching process included laying out the problem, information searching, group discussion, and summary. | ||||||
Zhang et al. [32] | Pharmaceutical molecular biology | 30/30 | Year two pharmacy students at a college | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing. There were 40 theoretical class hours and 18 experimental class hours (40 min per lecture). | One semester |
There were 40 theoretical class hours and 18 experimental class hours (40 min per lecture). | ||||||
The teaching process included laying out the problem, self-study, discussion, and answering questions. | ||||||
Zhuo & Wu [33] | Natural products chemistry | 85/87 | Year three pharmacy students at a college | Educational approach: PBL. | Lecturing. There were 9 theoretical class hours. | One semester |
There were 9 theoretical class hours. | ||||||
The teaching process included laying out the problem, information searching, group discussion, and summary. |