A preliminary exploration of the efficacy of self-directed learning in a new PBL medical course

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Research and Development in Higher Education Vol. 29: Critical Visions Thinking, learning and researching in higher education

July, 2006, 392 pages
Published by
Alison Bunker and Iris Vardi
ISBN
0 908557 69 8
Abstract 

The medical course at the University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA) uses a problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum adapted from one developed at The University of Queensland. The aim is for self-directed student learning using clinical problems to identify what to learn. The result is the generation of a set of learning objectives each week. This study is a preliminary attempt to gauge the efficacy of self-directed aspects of the PBL model at UNDA by comparing the weekly learning objectives that students generated (SLOs) with the learning objectives that the teachers, who developed the curriculum, expected them to derive (TLOs). SLOs were collected from PBL groups during the first eight weeks of the second semester, 2005. TLOs for each case were compared with the SLOs of the PBL groups: any matches were identified (MSLOs). Additional learning objectives, on the students’ list but not found on the TLOs list, were also compiled (ASLOs). Analysis showed that the average of MSLOs was 46 % of the TLOs but the ASLOs represented 43 % of the overall SLOs. Students are often conservative in their learning objectives, so the MSLOs may not be those that students used solely to guide their learning. The results suggest that there is a need for further curricular review at UNDA to promote a better match between students’ and teachers’ expectations of what should be learnt in the first year of a PBL medical course.

Keywords: PBL, Self-directed learning, Student generated learning objectives, Curriculum Implementation.