Problem based learning group work ...

[Paws]

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I was wondering what other people's experiences were with pbl group work. I find that it depends on the group assigned but that they can range from really great to incredibly awful. I have seen the whole range and when it's bad it is miserable. We have people who don't show up to discuss the questions, or who know all the answers and don't want to hear anything else, or who want to do all the typing or do none of the typing or whatever. Mostly tho, no one wants to meet and discuss it and then we get to the time with the professor and we have no idea what the answers are to the questions. 😡

It seems like a big waste of precious study time when a group is like that and I find it really frustrating. Any ideas or experiences people can share? I want to make it a good experience but it is frustrating and then I just end up sitting there waiting until I can leave. I don't feel I learn very well under these circumstances.

 

[Barry Otter]

That's a bummer. My experience with PBL has been mostly neutral to positive. For each case, we meet once to read the case over and to divvy up the tasks. We then meet back a few days later and teach each other what we've learned. A faculty member is present in both sessions. That way, everyone is responsible for bringing something to the discussion and it looks bad if you're not up to snuff. Is the set up at your school very different?

 

[Paws]

Hey Barry,

well the set up is the same but I am just finding that people don't want to meet or discuss it beforehand. 😕 Then, we are given random questions that someone sends out by email and then we meet with the faculty person. But I am finding that when we actually meet with the professor, because we have not talked about any of this together, we tend to not have very good answers and we flounder. That drives me nuts. Then, I never know who is typing what, or when anything is due, and we still haven't seen the feedback from our first pbl set of questions. Our group leader stinks I guess ... I don't know why she still hasn't shown us the first set of answers so we could learn from them. It's becoming a really negative experience ...

 

[johnny_blaze]

Hiya, I’m doing the PBL style of medical education as well and I kind of have a similar view towards it like you. I personally think its got its good points but also a lot of bad points.

I hate the fact that some people only do what they want to do and not what they SHOULD do. I’ve personally come across so many students that don’t give a **** about anatomy and therefore don’t even bother doing it. I mean its so frustrating trying to discuss the anatomy of an organ or system with nobody having ANY clue as to what you’re taking about! There’s nothing complicated about it, you just have to memorize it. These are people who definite don’t want to be surgeons so they think that they don’t need to know it… and fair enough, they may be right but it affects my learning if they don’t care… I’ll give you an example:

My group and I were doing a rotation in orthopaedic surgery and we were placed with a hand surgeon. He asked us a simple question… “name the bones in the wrist”. I was the ONLY person in my group who could name the carpal bones! He was so annoyed with the group that he told us to go to the library and wouldn’t give us any teaching!

I decided to do my own thing from then on. I don’t care how anyone else learns I just taught myself medical sciences. It’s not so bad now because the PBL I do in other rotations are actually lead by Doctors in that field so he/she lets everyone know if they’re slacking.

However, the BEST part about PBL…. Less lectures!! I cannot stand lectures. I always end up falling asleep or drifting off. A day full of lectures would be the biggest waist of time for me. PBL is definitely suited for those who, like me, enjoy the challenge of teaching themselves (to an extent of course)

FYI: My sister learned medicine the “traditional way” and basically learned everything under the sun about medical sciences… and how much does she remember now?? Hardly any of it! Maybe PBL isn’t so bad?