pbl/case based programs

[dentalmom]

is pbl same as "case based"?

which schools use this method and for how much of the curriculum.

also

how many 3 year programs are there? and where? are these schools in session 12 months/year without breaks in order to have enough time to cover the material?

also

in the "normal" 4 year programs. how many/long are the breaks for winter (christmas) summer, etc?

thank you all! i'm addicted to this site!!!😍

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[aphistis]

Lessee here...

Without knowing anything else, I would guess that a case-based curriculum would be similar to PBL. PBL at Indiana is presented as a series of paper cases, which we all address in our groups over a 10-day period.

Generally, 3 schools are considered PBL curricula--Indiana, Harvard, and USC. Listening to Gavin, it sounds like Arizona employs some PBL, but they might approach it a little differently than the other three schools.

The only 3-year program I know of is UOP, and someone else will have to give the details.

The academic calendar will show some variability from one school to the next, but IU's big class breaks are basically Christmas (~4 weeks) and spring break (1 week). Several one- or two-day breaks are incorporated in the calendar. It's a lot like college, except that the only real summer vacation you get is after first year. After D2, you'll be studying for boards, and after D3 you'll probably have summer clinics and/or externships keeping you occupied.

I stayed in school to hide from the real world a little longer, but dental school is starting to look suspiciously like "work" to me 😉

 

[ItsGavinC]

Good answers Bill.

Arizona also uses cases, although they are combined with a didactic curriculum as well.

Our curriculum is a systems-based approach, similar to the one that the majority of medical schools use.

We also receive cases each week to work on in our "group practices". The cases relate to the subject matter that we are learning in class and serve to a) improve our clinical skills b) assist us with becoming more comfortable making differential diagnosis and c) reinforce important material for the module we are currently learning.

For example, this week we finished up our Microbiology module, so our cases dealt with infectious diseases and our patients had a wide range of scenarios.

Additionally, all of our cases at Arizona are done online, in a blog (web log), so we interact with each other nearly any time of the day or night.

In the beginning we were given 10 cases a week to work on, but some class mates felt that was a higher number than necessary, so that was bumped down to four cases each week. The 10 number didn't bother me, but I do feel as though I'm learning more with only four cases each week.

Also, with our electronic format, the professors have written all part of the cases beforehand and have set them to post to our blog at specific times. We usually get case updates in the middle of the night or early morning.

We get a mid-term break in October for one week, two weeks off for Thanksgiving, 3.5 weeks off for Christmas/New Year's, along with 5 weeks off in the summer. And there are 1-2 day breaks thrown in.

Hope this answered some questions.

 

[ItsGavinC]

I forgot to mention that the cases account for 30% of our final grade in the module, so they are worth something!

 

[dentalmom]

bill

thank you for your help.

di (dental mom)

 

[dentalmom]

gavin

arizona remains among her top 3 choices. her others being nova and usc.

i've been enjoying your reports on arizona and think the program there sounds great. thank you for taking the time to do these, they are really helpful.

anyone with the scoop on the nova program? how about umdnj (applying because of residence)?

thank you all

 

[ItsGavinC]

Yah-E is the authority on Nova, and he's always willing to help. PM him if you'd like.

 

[Prettygirl]

gavin and bill..
Now that you two have been in school for a while, what do you think of PBL?
Would you recommend it to future first year students?
Is it harder to study since you are basically on your own?
Or does it force you to work harder?
Just curious......

 

[ItsGavinC]

Well, I like the case portion of our studies. We have all the resources available to find the information, especially in our electronic format. I can do a simple search and pull up over 5,000 results in over 150 textbooks, or I can add words to it and narrow it down to one or two books.

I think the cases are really improving my diagnostic skills, and I'm getting very comfortable at making differential diagnosis.

 

[aphistis]

Concur. The neat thing about the PBL format is that you're totally unbridled from the constraints of traditional didactic lecture. You can learn material superficially to pass the exam, or if something catches your interest, you can dive in headfirst and swim in it till your curiosity is gorged. 😀

One interesting point I've noticed regarding PBL is that it's already begun helping me cull the most clinically relevant aspects of the curriculum away from the less critically important. After all, heaven forfend I not remember, to the millimeter, how far anterior the superficial temporal artery runs to the external auditory meatus. 😉 Bottom line, I like it quite a bit to this point.

 

[swiminh2o]

What does "PBL" stand for anyways....?

Swim

 

[LestatZinnie]

problem based learning

it's not really for me as i'm used to being spoon fed @_@

 

[Brand]

Keep in mind PBL is different than case studies. Many, many schools use case studies, including Michigan, but only the 3 listed are PBL primarily.

 

[aphistis]

Originally posted by LestatZinnie
it's not really for me as i'm used to being spoon fed @_@

You won't be spoon-fed as a dentist, Lestat...better you should learn in the didactic years of dental school, where there's nobody to sue you for malpractice if you're wrong 😉

 

[larryt]

aphistis !

give us the link to your class's website. We wanna see all your classmates.....

 

[LestatZinnie]

haha..thanks for the advice but honestly I don't see any evidence that PBL is superior to didatic teaching or vice versa. In addition didatic teaching doesnt necessary equal memorizing facts and regurgitation on exams. There is still room for discussion and self-research, albeit it's not as heavily emphasized.

just as a footnote, malpractice suits are very very very rare in canada

 

[aphistis]

Originally posted by larryt
aphistis !

give us the link to your class's website. We wanna see all your classmates.....

It's still being worked on, actually 😀 My original goal was to have it finished and published by Labor Day, but some technical issues with the folks downstairs are pushing the timetable back.

And one worse than that, the class websites are located on our intranet...I don't think there's any way I can make them accessible to anyone outside IUSD. Sorry!

 

[ItsGavinC]

Originally posted by Brand
Keep in mind PBL is different than case studies. Many, many schools use case studies, including Michigan, but only the 3 listed are PBL primarily.

So which is it?

It is true that the three listed are PRIMARILY PBL schools, but the blanket statement that case studies NEVER equal PBL is incorrect.


At Arizona our PBL cases count for 30% of our grade. It's certainly a fair chunk.

 

[Brand]

You're over analyzing Gavin. Again, the 3 listed use PBL primarily. Other schools, just about all now if they want to maintain accredidation, use case studies as a secondary tool to accompany the traditional education approach.

I'm curious. Does anyone go to a school that doesn't use case studies?

 

[Prettygirl]

Is Upitt also a PBL school?

 

[ItsGavinC]

Then, I'm curious as to how do other schools use case studies.

Anyone?

BTW, accreditation has little to do with the PBL curriculum.

 

[gryffindor]

After reading this thread, I don't think our school does any of this case study stuff like the PBL schools or Arizona & Michigan do. At Buffalo, we had one class in Junior year where the teacher handed out a case each at each class and then spent the rest of class going over the details in the case and what it could possibly be and then a lecture on that topic, but that is the extent of our case education. No one had to look anything up to prepare for class, you just had to show up, collect the handout, take some notes if you felt like it, and listen.

Teachers sometimes give some examples of cases in class, but nothing involving our time outside of class. I guess we are one of those spoon-fed memorize-and-regurgitate-it-on-the-multiple-choice-exam schools. But if the board exams move in the direction of case based stuff, I'm sure our school will look to changing their curriculum. However, right now, I think there are only some case exam questions on the Part II boards, and that's it. And apparently our pseudo-case class was a fair review of what to expect on that section of Part II. Come December, I'll let you guys know.

 

[Brand]

Schools change/update their curriculum to reflect the times. This is evident in how many schools have started to impliment case studies.

griffin04, here at Michigan case studies have a greater focus for the D1s than in the past. I'm willing to bet that at Buffalo the Freshman will have greater exposure to them as well. They aren't required to maintain accredidation, but pressure has been placed on Universities to implement them more. At least, this is what we were told.

 

[Zurich5]

Originally posted by Prettygirl
Is Upitt also a PBL school?

Interesting thread. Yes, as far as I know UPitt is a PBL school. I applied there based on that, does anyone know anything about their pbl system and how well it works? IUSD sounds great.

 

[aphistis]

Originally posted by Zurich5
IUSD sounds great.

I couldn't agree more 😀