One challenge that educators face is to impart to students the skills to cope with the rapid expansion of knowledge and technology. Passing on knowledge is no longer critical because this information becomes obsolete too soon. Therefore imparting learning skills and processes that will facilitate the student to become independent lifelong learners is now more important.

The Faculty of Dentistry introduced problem-based learning (PBL) in 1996. PBL is student-centred learning where the teacher acts as a facilitator, rather than a resource person. In PBL, a ‘case’ is used to develop an effective reasoning process, self-directed learning skills, motivation for further learning as well as interpersonal and communication skills. Cases can be written to link different subjects and used to show the student the usefulness of such cross-disciplinary information.

Our Experiences With PBL

We wanted students to benefit from the PBL process as quickly as possible rather than wait until a complete curriculum overhaul allowed full PBL implementation. So PBL tutorials were conducted along with traditional lectures and tutorials. Within the constraints of the existing timetable, Year III and IV students attend one PBL session per week. Ideally, in a full PBL curriculum, there are normally two PBL sessions per week with afternoons as reading time.

Teacher Training

The facilitators must be properly trained. A change in mindset is essential, but training gives the facilitator the skill to ‘withhold’ teaching and be a listener and guide. Originally, 8 tutors were trained. We later ran our own training sessions and now we have a pool of 16 tutors. Only staff who were interested participated and taught PBL in addition to their normal workload.

Facilities

PBL tutorials are structured such that all the small groups (6-8 students each) run simultaneously. This meant that the existing number of tutorial rooms was inadequate. We had to re-designate some spaces to meet this demand. The other important facility is a well-equipped library because all the students will be searching for similar information simultaneously. This sometimes caused problems as articles or journals were unavailable.

Cases

Starting from scratch, writing new cases takes a tremendous amount of time. Tutors have to meet frequently not only to write cases, but also briefings (before starting new cases) and evaluations (of both cases and students).

Feedback

Staff: All the PBL tutors will agree that this process is demanding on our time; however, all are enjoying the sessions. Some have found tutoring ‘quiet’ groups very trying; but generally once the students learn what is expected of them, they deliver at later sessions. So far, staff who are involved are still enthusiastic.

Students: Student feedback carried out in 1997 showed that they generally enjoy the ‘non-threatening’ atmosphere of the tutorials. One complaint was that there was not enough reading time. (See Figs. 1 and 2 below for student responses.)

Our Plans

We are still evaluating the effects of PBL on student learning. From our little exposure with PBL, both staff and students seem to enjoy the sessions. So we hope to expand PBL by changing more traditional tutorials into the PBL format. However, we have no plans to go fully PBL, because we cannot sacrifice the training of clinical skills vital to a dental surgeon within the constraints of the four-year curriculum. Thus, the Faculty will opt for a PBL/competency-based hybrid curriculum.

Conclusion

The PBL process enhances student thinking and fosters independent learning. Nevertheless, PBL demands for resources are very high. There are definite benefits of this method of teaching but more long-term evaluations should be carried out.