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. 2017 Sep-Oct;49(5):344-347.
doi: 10.4103/ijp.IJP_492_16.

Incorporating problem based learning into medical curriculum: An experience from a medical college in Mangalore

Nithin Kumar  1 , Tanuj Kanchan  2 , Bhaskaran Unnikrishnan  1 , Rekha Thapar  1 , Prasanna Mithra  1 , Vaman Kulkarni  1 , Ramesh Holla  1 , Darshan Bhagwan  1 , Yeshwanter Radhakrishnan  1
Affiliations

Incorporating problem based learning into medical curriculum: An experience from a medical college in Mangalore

Nithin Kumar et al. Indian J Pharmacol. 2017 Sep-Oct.

Abstract

Background: The Medical Council of India (MCI) has envisioned a change in the undergraduate medical curriculum by encouraging integrated teaching and Problem Based Learning (PBL).

Methods: In this cross-sectional study 110 medical teachers of Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore were assessed regarding their perception on PBL. Independent t-test was applied to find out the difference in the mean perception scores regarding PBL among the teachers in pre/para-clinical and clinical departments and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: PBL as a teaching method was preferred by 65.2% medical teachers. The teachers from clinical departments (Mean 4.1, SD 0.8) perceived PBL sessions to be more effective than the traditional methods than those from the pre-clinical and para clinical departments (Mean 3.7, SD 3.7) and this difference was found to be statistically significant. (P =0.028).

Conclusion: PBL can complement integrated teaching and motivates students towards self-learning, and apply the learnt concepts of basic specialties to clinical problem solving.

Keywords: Medical education; South India; medical teachers; problem-based learning; undergraduate teaching.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

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