Impact of problem-based medical curriculum on student’s approaches to learning

Abstract EN

A problem-based strategy has been used in plan-ning and implementing the medical eurrieulum at the Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain since 1984.

Ef'f'eo tiveness of this eurreulum is being studied using qualitative and quantitative methods.

Students’ ap-proaehes to learning in this innovative programme have been investigated using an expanded version of Entwistle’s Short Inventory of Approaches to Study-ing.

A cross-sectional study across the whole medical curriculum and a longitudinal study with one batch of students were carried out.

A comparison was also made with another Gulf School with traditional disci-pline-based curriculum.

The results of the study re-vealed that students in the problem-based school with advancing years show Sgnificantly higher scores for meaning orientation, versatility, prediction of success and elaboration with lower scores for reproducing orientation and learning pathologies.