Abstract: Inquiry-based experimental teaching aims at solving scientific problems and guides students to conduct inquiry-based learning by setting problem situations. It has been widely used in the field of medical education. In this study, the design and implementation of inquiry-based teaching was illustrated by taking as an example the inquiry-based experimental course of medical immunology for 143 students from the five-year basic medicine major and the ″5+3″ integrated clinical medicine major of Tianjin Medical University in 2019. The teaching effect was evaluated through the total score examination, questionnaire survey and student interview. The results showed that 118 (82.5%) students gained excellent scores and 25 (17.5%) students gained good scores. Among 127 valid questionnaires collected, 110 (86.6%) students were satisfied with the course design; 103 (81.1%), 108 (85.0%) and 113 (89.0%) students believed the course was helpful to improve their self-learning ability, innovation ability and teamwork ability, respectively; 117 (92.1%) students believed the course improved their hands-on ability; 107 (84.3%) students believed that the course helped to stimulate their interest in scientific research. Among 48 students who participated in the interview, 42 (87.5%) students gave positive comments on the design, implementation and teachers of this course. The inquiry-based experiment course of medical immunology has good teaching effect, which is helpful to cultivate students′ innovation consciousness and improve students′ comprehensive ability, and has been recognized by students.

Key words: Medical immunology, Inquiry-based experimental teaching, Teaching reform, Innovation ability