PBL in the Faculty of Dentistry

As part of the vision to reinvent NUS as a global knowledge enterprise, it is necessary to empower graduates with life-long learning skills that will equip them to be independent learners. To facilitate this learning philosophy, problem-based learning (PBL) has been implemented since 1996 in the undergraduate dental students’ clinical years as a supplement to the traditional lecture-tutorial system.

In the PBL approach, summarised clinical cases are presented to groups of 6–7 students for discussion. Questions are posed to stimulate the students’ minds and raise certain learning issues. Next, each student independently searches for answers to these learning topics; they then present their findings to the rest of their respective groups during a subsequent session for further discussion. In PBL, tutors play a relatively passive role (vs. teacher-centred focus in traditional tutorials) by facilitating discussions and helping students derive answers without spoon-feeding them. Consequently, students play more active self-reliant roles in the acquisition of new information/knowledge.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme

The Dental Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) was introduced in 1997. The aim is to cultivate a research culture within budding dentists by exposing dental students to research methodologies and providing them with a better understanding of research work. Unlike other faculties where only selected groups participate, every student in the Dental Faculty is involved in UROP. Generally, 3–4 dental students are grouped together and supervised by academic staff from various disciplines. Students carry out their projects according to a study protocol, analyse the results and submit a research report to be assessed by a panel of 2–3 independent evaluators. A student representative from each group makes a research presentation during the Faculty Research Day. Top groups will be chosen to present their findings at regional conferences. Manuscript preparation is also part of the learning experience and students are encouraged to submit their publications to relevant international journals.

Adapting PBL in UROP

Philosophy: Marrying PBL with UROP is in fact logical as both dictate similar underlying principles in terms of philosophies and practices. In both learning experiences, student learners usually take responsibility for their own learning and assume active roles in acquiring solutions to problems, while supervisors/teachers act merely as facilitators (as opposed to functioning traditionally as information providers and figures of authority). In UROP, student learners generally have prior basic knowledge and/or practical experience in the subject matter/clinical discipline that serve as a foundation to the learning process; supervisors/teachers generally concentrate on developing a master plan of UROP learning to achieve a desired curriculum outcome. This learning process in both PBL and UROP is believed to better reinforce each student’s existing knowledge base, enable deeper understanding and enhance integration and mastery of new information.

Practice—A Personal Experience: The titles of the UROP projects were given to small groups of student learners. Learner-led discussions were carried out to establish the known and identify the unknown, thereby drafting a preliminary problem statement for initial focus. In order to understand the background of the study and clearly define the problem statement, students engaged cooperatively in gathering, organising and/or re-organising evidence-based information through extensive literature search and review as well as problem-centred discussions. The process was an intensive one, requiring critical appraisal and careful interpretation that would lead to the revision and refinement of each problem statement as well as facilitate the formulation of a hypothesis and the eventual construction of a verifiable protocol with meticulous details. Systematically conducting a well-designed experiment, including organised data collection, mandated diligence and discipline. The results of the experiment were then statistically analysed. Prudent interpretation of the findings was another important learning process that required critical thinking and objective analysis to test the hypothesis.

A student representative from the top UROP group with his supervisor at the First Asia Student Clinician Program organised during the 17th International Association for Dental Research (South-East Asian Division) Annual meeting in Hong Kong, September 2002

Efforts were concurrently made to compare and possibly integrate the findings with that from previous reports, using relevant rationales and justifications. Like PBL, UROP also entailed that a manuscript be submitted as a report. A multimedia presentation was the last, but not the least essential, component of the learning process.

Difficulties Encountered: Applying PBL to UROP and creating a more conducive atmosphere for critical thinking was usually time-consuming. Due to constraints in the curriculum schedule, intervention from supervisors was necessary at times to ensure adequate and timely progress. It was also important to anticipate students’ learning needs and provide sufficient resources so that the teaching/learning goal was achievable through guiding without spoon-feeding. Managing group dynamics and clarifying expectations of teamwork (including areas of individual responsibility and accountability for learning) were other crucial facets that required observation and monitoring. Teachers also had to balance the following: inspiring curiosity and interaction; providing a setting for the disintegration/integration or dissection/synthesis of concepts; conveying results and maintaining standards. To improve implementation, we are in
the process of further objectively evaluating how the PBL approach can be applied in UROP.

Conclusion

Supervising UROP is a rewarding challenge in many ways. It is a challenge as it implicates an expectation of deliverables, both in terms of research output and teaching/learning outcome. It is also certainly rewarding if it successfully nurtures problem-solving skills as well as perseverance in students to conduct research and extend the boundaries of knowledge. Our efforts to integrate PBL into UROP further increase the challenge as we seek to empower graduates with the means to independently and constantly acquire ever-changing knowledge and perform beyond academic expectations.

References

Pan D. Learning to Teach, Teaching to Learn: A Handbook for NUS Teachers (4th ed.). Singapore: Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning (National University of Singapore), 2001.