ARTICLE #3 | 45
RE-DESIGNING OF A PROBLEM BASED LEARNING MODULE TO REFLECT A
DISTINCTIVE CURRICULUM
was designed for medical students of North America who already
are graduates, it is recognised that the format of PBL may need
to be adapted to meet the requirements of the younger students
of UK’s medical school (Taylor and Miflin 2008). As such Keele
has adopted a PBL format which has a blend of directed learning
through the use of lectures and seminars. Classified as hybrid PBL,
in this format PBL acting as a hub enables students to contextualise
information and knowledge acquired through other resources such
as lectures and seminars (Samarasekera and Karunathilake 2011).
The function of lectures here is to provide up to date information on
the key concepts. Secondly lectures enable detailed information to
be delivered in a simplified way through diagrams and use of figures.
This can be highlighted as one of the key strengths of lectures where
information can be segmented in order to help student understand
complex issues.
The main outcome of Keele’s MBChB Year 1 is to enable students
establish a well-rounded knowledge base on major aspects of human
anatomy and physiology as well as develop the related clinical skills.
In this respect the cancer module is an exception since the topic
of cancer mainly deals with abnormality of normal functions. Thus
parallel to the topics of cancer there is a separate strand of material
which aims to cover the normal processes altered in cancer. In this
approach cancer topics are delivered concurrently in the context of
normal i.e. non-diseased states. As such students are able to see the
relevancy of the learning topics and hence become motivated to
expand their knowledge. Here the requirement of being motivated
is assumed as a “superior condition” of adult learners which need
to be addressed in order to engage them in their learning (Knowles
1975).
In this context the utilisation of PBL in the cancer module serves to
promote the principles of adult learning as proposed by Knowles.
Firstly the use of clinically relevant cases fulfils the criteria of ‘need
to know’ and the ability to ‘motivate’ students. It also highlights ‘the
immediate relevancy’ of the learning topics to their working life.
The ethos of self-directed learning within PBL encourages learners
to be responsible for their decisions and its unique format enables
existing knowledge to act as the foundation to build new concepts.
The governing power of students in establishing their own learning
outcomes raise the issue of how to effectively assess learning
when there is a mismatch between students defined ILOs and
the designated ILOs of the module. Here I will focus on whether a
specific ILO of The cancer module deemed as core knowledge has
been identified as a learning topic across the 12 PBL groups of Year
1.