Development of Research‐Based Learning in Health Education and Health Promotion

Abstract

This quasi‐experimental research intended to investigate the success of an attempt
to integrate research based learning into the curricula of public health master
courses. A purposive sampling identified 20 master degree students of public health
in the field of health education and health promotion at the first semester of the
academic year 2011 to participate in the study. The investigation was conducted for
four months during June to September 2011. An administrative questionnaire was
used by students and the reliability of the questionnaire was tested by Cronbach’s
Alpha coefficient. The coefficient was 0.7809. Mean knowledge, attitude, practice
scores, and satisfaction scores were analyzed by using the one‐sample t‐test at 0.05
level of significance. The results revealed that research‐based learning improved the
understanding of research problems and research questions, literature review, and
composing the conceptual framework. The study resulted in a significantly
improved students’ behavior in terms of knowledge, attitude, practice, and
satisfaction with the research‐based learning in comparison to the time before the
implementation of the investigation (p<0.001). It is concluded that research‐based
learning is an effective method to be integrated into the curricula for students of
health education and health promotion*.Curricula identification number: 515707