Traditionally, medical education was delivered via large lectures, which is passive, one-directional, and known to be one of the least effective ways to learn. Harvard dental school was one of the earliest programs to try this newer method of learning, which has since been adopted by many other dental schools.
Problem-based learning is (according to Google) “a teaching method that uses real-world problems to help students learn concepts and develop skills.” We would have a few hours of morning lectures, and then in the afternoon would break up into small groups of 5-7 students for the PBL curriculum. Each session was 3-4 hours long and based around a case/scenario. The cases were designed to incorporate interdisciplinary materials and aims at integrating the basic science, the histology, physiology, and pathophysiology, treatment planning, and ethics.
For example, a case might involve a 68 year old male patient who arrives to your clinic with several fractured teeth after falling in his bathtub. The case discussion would touch on his complicated medical history (what is kidney failure? What is a stroke and when is it relevant to the dentist? How does the clotting pathway work? What medications do we need to know about?), discussions of the types of dental trauma, diagnosing his periodontal status, endodontic status, discuss emergency and long-term treatment options, and possible socio-economic factors that influence his care.
I am someone who likes to think about the big picture, and I do well in small group learning because I’m not afraid to speak up to ask or answer questions. In my opinion, PBL was beneficial because it helped me contextualize and synthesize the knowledge. It’s easy to remember learn the clotting pathways when you remember the story behind it, rather than just trying to memorize it.
The downside to this way of learning is that each session is not standardized. Some groups might covered some topics, and not others. At the end of the day, you are still responsible for learning on your own to meet all the objectives of each case. Each group learning is also dependent on who is in the group. Sometimes it’s easy to get sidetracked by a topic or a discussion might be dominated by one student. Or, if nobody prepared in advance for the case, the discussions were not as useful. A preceptor is usually present to guide the discussion. It feels like you’re in an escape room trying to figure it out together; some teams are more effective or dysfunctional than others.
Destination: Dental School | Advising 