Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Devices
Open Access

Problem Based Learning Among Medical Students

Learning by Problems (PDB) is documented as early as Plato and Socratic pedagogy and its manifestations have been varied. The philosophy embodies Alfred North Whitehead's observation that "education literally means the exit process". Fundamental reforms in undergraduate medical education have been advocated for over 100 years. In 1899 William Osler realized that the complexity of medicine had already exceeded the capacity of teachers to teach everything they needed. PBL was first developed in 1969 at the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University in Canada and is now recognized as an important innovation in medical education in Western countries.

Although PBL is an application in medical education that is not a free form of learning, PBL is a rather rigorous and practical educational learning process. In Medicine, a highly structured educational methodology for PBL stands, centered on the student, a small group and collaborative problem-solving activities. In the PBL, students are placed in an active learning situation that gives them clinical problems and training to help them understand what they need. Faculty members go through a tedious exercise to develop a single case of PBL. They should be able to find the right learning resources and then apply what they have.