Effects of pecha kucha presentation pedagogy on nursing students’ presentation skills: a quasi-experimental study in Tanzania

Introduction: Ineffective and non-interactive learning among nursing students limits opportunities for students’ classroom presentation skills, creativity, and innovation upon completion of their classroom learning activities. Pecha Kucha presentation is the new promising pedagogy that engages students in learning and improves students’ speaking skills and other survival skills. It involves the use of 20 slides, each covering 20 seconds of its presentation. The current study examined the effect of Pecha Kucha’s presentation pedagogy on presentation skills among nursing students in Tanzania. Objectives: The aim of this study was to establish comparative nursing student’s presentation skills between exposure to the traditional PowerPoint presentations and Pecha Kucha presentations. Methods: The study employed an uncontrolled quasi-experimental design (pre-post) using a quantitative research approach among 230 randomly selected nursing students at the respective training institution. An interviewer-administered structured questionnaire adopted from previous studies to measure presentation skills between June and July 2023 was used. The study involved the training of research assistants, pre-assessment of presentation skills, training of participants, assigning topics to participants, classroom presentations, and post-intervention assessment. A linear regression analysis model was used to determine the effect of the intervention on nursing students’ presentation skills using Statistical Package for Social Solution (SPSS) version 26, set at a 95% confidence interval and 5% significance level. Results: Findings revealed that 63 (70.87%) participants were aged ≤ 23 years, of which 151 (65.65%) and 189 (82.17%) of them were males and undergraduate students, respectively. Post-test findings showed a significant mean score change in participants’ presentation skills between baseline (M = 4.07 ± SD = 0.56) and end-line (M = 4.54 ± SD = 0.59) that accounted for 0.4717 ± 0.7793; p <.0001(95%CI) presentation skills mean score change with a medium effect size of 0.78. An increase in participants’ knowledge of Pecha Kucha presentation was associated with a 0.0239 (p <.0001) increase in presentation skills. Conclusion: Pecha Kucha presentations have a significant effect on nursing students’ presentation skills as they enhance inquiry and mastery of their learning content before classroom presentations. The pedagogical approach appeared to enhance nursing students’ confidence during the classroom presentation. Therefore, there is a need to incorporate Pecha Kucha presentation pedagogy into nursing curricula and nursing education at large to promote student-centered teaching and learning activities and the development of survival skills. Trial registration: It was not applicable as it was a quasi-experimental study. © The Author(s) 2024.