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Research Article: Effectiveness of a “5E+AI” teaching model on science communication in medical students: a contribution to global health literacy

Date Published: 2026-08-07

Abstract:
The improvement of global health literacy depends on health professionals having effective public science communication capabilities. However, worldwide, medical education systems still largely lack training in science communication for medical students. How to construct a systematic and scalable model for cultivating scientific communication capabilities is a key issue currently faced by the reform of medical education. Our study aims to evaluate the effect of the “5E+AI” teaching model on the cultivation of medical students' science communication capabilities, and to assess the impact of this model on students' learning participation, acquisition of medical knowledge, and creation of popular science works. A historical controlled quasi-experimental design was employed. Twenty-nine medical students enrolled in the “Fundamentals and Practice of Medical Science Popularization” course at Sun Yat-sen University during the 2025-1 semester served as the historical control group (receiving lecture-based, instructor-centered teaching with PowerPoint presentations and group discussions, but without AI-assisted tools), while 28 students enrolled in the same course during the 2025-2 semester served as the experimental group (receiving the “5E+AI” teaching model). The two groups are the same in terms of teaching content, total class hours, teachers, teaching materials, assessment methods, etc. The evaluation indicators include participation score, medical knowledge test score, final score of the science communication project and student self-report questionnaire. Intergroup comparisons were performed using the Mann–Whitney U -test. The experimental group scored significantly higher than the control group on all three primary outcome measures: participation scores (median 85.00 vs. 80.00, U = 220.00, P = 0.002), medical knowledge test scores (median 100.00 vs. 80.00, U = 210.00, P = 0.001), and science communication project scores (median 85.00 vs. 85.00, U = 213.00, P = 0.001). In addition, the experimental group reported significantly higher scores than the control group across all three dimensions of the self-report questionnaire ( P < 0.05). The “5E+AI” teaching model helps enhance medical students' classroom participation, ability to acquire medical knowledge and science communication skills. In this teaching model, artificial intelligence can help students address the issues of knowledge deficiency and resource constraints. Meanwhile, the 5E teaching framework provides students with structured teaching scenarios. Together, they enhance teaching effectiveness and offer replicable and adaptable local solutions for the reform of medical communication education in the context of global health literacy promotion.

Introduction:
The improvement of global health literacy depends on health professionals having effective public science communication capabilities. However, worldwide, medical education systems still largely lack training in science communication for medical students. How to construct a systematic and scalable model for cultivating scientific communication capabilities is a key issue currently faced by the reform of medical education.

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