PBL or not PBL?

[tinker bell]

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Every one on this board has been talking about PBL and USC.....blah..blah. I hear all bad things about it. However, many educators told me that PBL is better for students. My interviewer at Case Western told me that PBL is the way it should be.

For one thing I notice on this board is that how bad it is at USC. However, Harvard is doing PBL, and noone is talking about it. And those big H kids seem to do well on the board as always. So, is PBL that bad after all?

I will not complain if my school goes PBL. I just think the contents will be much the same. Just the style is different, right?

Please post any PBL experience you have here to share....good, the bad, and the ugly.....I'm all ears

Thanks

 

[scandalouslj]

Indiana is another school that does PBL just like USC. Well Indiana does a half PBL, half normal curriculm. I dont know if USC does it that way, or full like Harvard. We are doing it right now in my Physiology class at Indiana undergrad. and I think its great. People hate is so much becuase of how hard it is, and how much time it takes to get used to it. Indiana has to start in June just so the students can get used to it. It has def raised board scores at Indiana, which already has pretty high scores. From my expereince of it I think it is great also, and that every school should adopt it. It takes what you know and actually apply it. It really helps yo reason through a problem. The same way you are gonna have to do with a patient. In my physiology class we would get case studys, such as a 35 year old male came in complainging of chest pains, heres his vital signs, he has diarehha, and some case history. We would have to try to solve the problem. That is what PBL is all about, and it is very hard, becuase half the time I wouldnt know where to start, and some of his vital signs would tell me to do one thing, while his case history says something else.

 

[FMLizard]

Sign me up for IU, USC, and Harvard...well maybe #3 is wishful thinking! PBL rules as an approach in other academic disciplines. It makes you think critically and analytically about problems and to approach the situation like a real practitioner, rather than to simply memorize and regurgitate facts.

 

[tinker bell]

I just hate bulimia learning style so much. (Stuffing our head with facts and make us throw them up on test day).

I have taken graduate courses that we actually do problems solving, case study like that. I think PBL is great for classes like pharmacology, cell bio, physio, etc....I'm just sick of reading physio book. It just doesn't stimulate my brain. I find no motivation during reading pages after pages.

Years of doing research has shift my brain to another era, I think.
Just hope that my school will soon change the curriculum, and do at least half PBL. So, I can learn for real. Instead of sitting all day in class, and then library, and then throw them up at test time.