What is Problem Based Learning (PBL)?

Problem Based Learning (PBL) is a modern educational method that makes use of the latest scientific insights in cognitive learning and aims to prepare students to better meet the demands of their professional career.

PBL was developed as an instruction or educational method that intends to create a flexible learning environment. It tries to challenge students to "learn how to learn" and to work cooperatively in groups to seek solutions to real word problems. These problems are used to engage students' curiosity and to initiate learning of the subject matter.

PBL prepares students to think critically and analytically, and to find and use appropriate learning resources. In essence PBL ends up orienting students toward meaning making in preference to fact collecting.

PBL is a complete approach to education, since it is both a curriculum and a process. The curriculum consists of carefully selected and designed problems clustered in blocks that demand from the learner acquisition of critical knowledge, problem solving proficiency, the commonly used systemic approach to resolving real life problems. It emphasizes the integrated learning of important skills.

In problem based learning, the traditional teacher and student roles change, setting the pattern for students to become more responsible for their own learning process. The faculty provides resources, tutors, and evaluators, guiding the students in their problem solving efforts. The role as tutor is different from a traditional teacher, in the sense that a tutor is like a mentor who guides the group process, instead of exchanging his knowledge in a one-way direction to the students. The tutor literally steps back to let the students themselves act to find solutions for the problems presented.

In Problem-Based Learning (PBL) there are small groups supported by lectures and theme sessions. Clinical contact begins early; from the first week of the program, students will learn generic skills of communication in a clinical setting as well as systematic history taking and physical examination.

There are three 90-minute PBL tutorials each week. A new problem is presented every Wednesday. This arrangement allows students to organize their study for the week ahead. The second tutorial occurs on the following Sunday and the third tutorial concludes the problem on the following Wednesday, before moving on to the new problem for the next week. 

What PBL can do