Evaluation of problem-based learning: A lecturer's perspective

Abstract

Introduction: The exponential growth in medical/dental knowledge and the ever-expanding influence and sophistication of information technologies have placed a burden of responsibilities on dental educators to fashion out a curriculum that can prepare students to face the coining challenges in the new millennium. Consequently, a curriculum reform took place in the Faculty of Dentistry, National University of Singapore in 1997. Problem-based learning (PBL) was first introduced to the Faculty in 1996 as a pilot project to the 4th year. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the 4-year experience in PBL teaching and learning from the lecturers' point of view. Materials and Methods: All 12 lecturers, who had been involved in the PBL teaching, participated in this questionnaire survey, which was composed of 17 questions with a 5-digit Likert scale. Data analysis was carried out using the Spearman's correlation, t-test, and the Mann-Whitney U test. Results: Six female, 5 male and 1 unidentified lecturers were recruited into this survey with a 100% response rate. In general, lecturers learned more in teaching PBL and significantly took pleasure in the interactive learning and self-directed learning modes inherent to PBL (P = 0.004). Compared to the male lecturers, female lecturers had a greater propensity to feel that PBL teaching might not be cost-effective (P = 0.03). Senior lecturers felt more fulfilled compared with the younger ones (P = 0.026). Those lecturers who enjoyed the interactive learning experience in PBL seemed to like the self-directed learning and felt more fulfilled through teaching PBL compared to the traditional teaching (TT) (P