Objective

2

To explore the effects and related factors of jigsaw teaching in the undergraduate course Medical Statistics.

Methods

2

A questionnaire survey was conducted in a cross-sectional study of eight classes in the School of Chinese Medicine at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine to collect their basic information

academic information

score related information

and communication apprehension scale score as the baseline. With a cross-over design

two classes of students were taught using both jigsaw-based teaching and traditional teaching methods respectively

and the teaching effects before and after the cross-over was compared. SPSS 27.0 and R language were used for multiple group factor analysis.

Results

2

Among 227 college students

37 (16.3%)

139 (61.2%) and 51 (22.5%) demonstrated low

medium

and high communication apprehension respectively. A large proportion of college students from both urban and rural areas suffered from high apprehension. There is a big proportion of college students who have never been leaders and have high level of apprehension. The teaching effects of the jigsaw technique (measured with quiz scores) varied between classes of the five-year and eight-year programs with statistical significance (

t

=3.443

P

<

0.05)

students of the five-year program scoring 4.7 points higher than those of the eight-year program. The crossover study found that the teaching effects of the jigsaw method was better than that of the traditional teaching method. Students′ average score with the jigsaw teaching was 4.63 points higher than that with the traditional method in the t test while the former was 3.16 points higher than the latter in the Chi-squared test. As the communication apprehension level of college students increased

the mean score of academic performance manifested a downward trend (correlation coefficient -0.159)

but there was no statistical correlation between the effects of jigsaw teaching and the level distribution of such apprehension (

χ

2

=0.754

P

=0.686).

Conclusion

2

Jigsaw teaching can help students from different regions and growth environments

and with different leadership experiences overcome their communication apprehension. The teaching effects of the jigsaw technique was better than that of traditional teaching methods. Applying this method in medical colleges and universities could not only help students overcome the apprehension

but also improve teaching effects and quality.