Objective　To explore the application effect of small private online course (SPOC) teaching mode in clinical practice teaching of thoracic surgery. Methods　A total of 56 undergraduate students who were internships from May to July 2018 were selected as subjects. They were randomly divided into experimental group and control group. SPOC teaching mode and traditional teaching mode were respectively adopted in the practice teaching

and the teaching effect was evaluated by questionnaires and written examinations. SPSS 22.0 was used for statistical analysis

t test for independent-sample test

and chi-square test for counting data. There were significant differences when P<0.05. Results The questionnaire showed that the six teaching effect evaluation indicators of the experimental group were higher than those of the control group (P<0.01). In terms of written test assessment

the average score of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group

with significant differences (P<0.05). Conclusion　The SPOC teaching mode can improve the teaching effect of clinical practice in thoracic surgery and improve students' self-learning ability.