Impact of reflective case studies on learning in clinical biochemistry.

Abstract

A novel pedagogic reflective strategy was developed to facilitate the teaching and learning of basic clinical biochemistry skills and to enhance critical thinking and reflection in clinical science students, specifically BSc Biomedical Science (BMS) and BMedSci Medical Science (BMedSci), at De Montfort University (UK) in 2016/17. Students that voluntarily resolved three clinical case studies proposed in 2016/17 and 2017/18 were shown to enhance their critical thinking and reflection [for each question, up to five marks are provided for their ability to: a) extract all the fundamental concepts, b) clarity of expression, c) reflect and comment]. A more detailed studied completed in 2018/19, contrarily has shown different trends in the learning/performance for each programme. Thus, BMS (n=19) students surprisingly displayed a significant reduction in their performance throughout the project (total marks were reduced from 10.68 to 5.0); meanwhile BMedSci (n=8) showed an increase in their performance, particularly related to their ability to synthesise information and clarity of expression (marks increased from 3.25 to 4.75). This discrepancy was not reflected in their impressions, as 83.4% of overall participants indicated an improvement in their learning performance, and 66.7% (33.3% undecided) reported acquisition of reflective skills. Although our results are inconclusive due to the low number of participants, students improved their communication and scientific writing skills.