Abu-Hijleh Marwan F, Kassab Salah Eldin, Allouch Soumaya, Ali Raja Mahamade, Al-Wattary Noor, Nomikos Michail, Salem Abdel Halim, Shehata Mohamed H, Sequeira Reginald P
Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, QU Health, Qatar University, P.O. Box: 2713, Doha, Qatar.
College of Medicine, Gulf Medical University, P.O. Box: 4184, Ajman, United Arab Emirates.
BMC Med Educ. 2025 Apr 17;25(1):561. doi: 10.1186/s12909-025-07165-z.
Integrated curricula reinforce student learning and retention of relevant knowledge. At Qatar University and Arabian Gulf University medical colleges, Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is the principal teaching and learning strategy to implement integrated multidisciplinary system-based curriculum. In addition, other initiatives include integrated assessment, logical organization of teaching and learning methods, as well as combined faculty effort in curriculum planning and delivery. This multicenter study aims to develop and validate a questionnaire for measuring the extent of medical curriculum integration in PBL programs.
Following an extensive literature review, the content validity of a questionnaire was tested through focus group discussion with subject matter experts (n = 20), followed by pilot testing with medical students (n = 20). The content-validated questionnaire (31 items) was distributed to students in the two colleges. To examine the construct validity and construct reliability of the questionnaire, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted with 330 students followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on 579 students.
EFA supported a four-factor structure of the questionnaire which explained 62% of the variance; however, four items were deleted because of low factor loading (< 0.5) or cross-loading on multiple factors. Further CFA also supported the four-factor structure. Another three items were removed due to high modification indices. The most parsimonious model consisted of 24 items with good fitness indices (χ = 512.23, df = 236, χ /df = 2.17, CFI = 0.97, TLI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.04, SRMR = 0.031, and AIC = 688.22). The four factors were: Planned Curriculum (3 items), Delivered Curriculum (10 items), Assessed Curriculum (4 items) and Learned Curriculum (7 items). The factor loadings of the items ranged from 0.61 to 0.84 with strong correlations between the four latent factors (constructs). The construct reliability of the total questionnaire was 0.97 and the four factors were between 0.94 and 0.97. In addition, there were strong significant correlations between curriculum integration scores and student satisfaction with the curriculum.
The developed questionnaire exhibits good evidence of construct validity and reliability. Further studies required to test the validity of this questionnaire in other settings.
整合课程能够加强学生对相关知识的学习与记忆。在卡塔尔大学和海湾大学医学院，基于问题的学习（PBL）是实施基于多学科系统整合课程的主要教学策略。此外，其他举措还包括整合评估、教学方法的合理组织，以及教师在课程规划与授课方面的共同努力。这项多中心研究旨在开发并验证一份用于衡量PBL项目中医学课程整合程度的问卷。
在广泛的文献综述之后，通过与20位主题专家进行焦点小组讨论来测试问卷的内容效度，随后对20名医学生进行预测试。经过内容效度验证的问卷（31个项目）被分发给两所学院的学生。为检验问卷的结构效度和结构信度，对330名学生进行探索性因子分析（EFA），随后对579名学生进行验证性因子分析（CFA）。
探索性因子分析支持问卷的四因素结构，该结构解释了62%的方差变异；然而，由于因子载荷较低（<0.5）或在多个因子上存在交叉载荷，删除了4个项目。进一步的验证性因子分析也支持四因素结构。由于修正指标较高，又删除了另外3个项目。最精简的模型由24个项目组成，具有良好的拟合指标（χ=512.23，df=236，χ/df=2.17，CFI=0.97，TLI=0.97，RMSEA=0.04，SRMR=0.031，AIC=688.22）。这四个因素分别是：计划课程（3个项目）、实施课程（10个项目）、评估课程（4个项目）和所学课程（7个项目）。各项目的因子载荷范围为0.61至0.84，四个潜在因子（结构）之间具有很强的相关性。问卷总体的结构信度为0.97，四个因素的信度在0.94至0.97之间。此外，课程整合得分与学生对课程的满意度之间存在很强的显著相关性。
所开发的问卷具有良好的结构效度和信度证据。需要进一步研究以检验该问卷在其他环境中的效度。
