Problem Based Learning for Fourth Year Medical Students in Fayoum Governorate, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Problem based learning (PBL) consider that the most significant development in education over the past five decades. It has been boosted by the curriculum of choice, and since its introduction in the 1960's, has been vastly adopted by many medical and dental schools. Objectives: The aim of this research was to compare the development and recollection of knowledge in the medical sciences between students on the traditional and reformed undergraduate medical curricula, respectively.

Methods: For each medical student has taken, The Progress Test Medizin (PTM), relative frequencies of correct answers were computed for basic sciences items only and for the whole curriculum. Frequencies were averaged and grouped by semester and curriculum. Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were performed at all measurement points with a Bonferroni-corrected p-value at the level of p < 0.005. Eta-squared (g2) was used to classify effect size.

Results: The current study occurs on 80 fourth year medical students divided into two rounds. First round study by the traditional medical curriculum (lecture group) whiles the second round study by the reformed medical curriculum (problem learning group). The present study shows that there is statistically significant difference with p-value <0.05 between different topics among lecture teaching method with the lowest score given for identification topic and the highest core for death topic; which indicated that lecture methods not suits some topics as identification topic

Conclusion: Proceed testing as a longitudinal method allows us to better understand the development of knowledge during formal undergraduate education. The main difference between traditional and problem-based medical education demonstrate to be induced by the high-stakes national examination undertaken in the traditional course.