Student perceptions of tutor skills in problem-based learning tutorials.

OBJECTIVE: The problem-based learning (PBL) tutor plays a role that is different from the role of a teacher in a conventional teaching format. In the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates, all students are Arab nationals and tutors are expatriates with different sociocultural backgrounds from the students. This study was designed to investigate how students evaluate tutors in PBL tutorials and whether student evaluations of tutors change with the progress of students in PBL tutorials. METHODS: Differences in tutor performance evaluation by male and female students were also analysed. The students evaluated 12 tutor skills in a scale of 1-3, 1 being 'below average' and 3, 'outstanding'. Student responses from a total of 314 (98.1%) completed forms collected over 2 academic years were analysed statistically. A total of 14 tutors participated in the PBL programme. RESULTS: The analysis revealed that tutors as a group were rated as having average to outstanding tutor skills in 10 items of the evaluation form. Students and faculty perceptions were different for the tutor skills of guiding students for information management. The students expected more support from tutors, whereas the tutors tried to emphasize self-learning in the PBL curriculum. Lower scores to the tutors in the 'problem' bringing sociocultural and religious issues for discussion showed that a gap in sociocultural/religious understanding between students and tutors might influence tutor skills. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in tutor evaluation by male and female students indicate necessity of adopting different strategies by tutors in a different sociocultural background. The results of the study have direct implications for faculty development.

Facility with the English language and problem-based learning group interaction: findings from an Arabic setting.

The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), United Arab Emirates (UAE) University is in a unique position to explore issues related to English language proficiency and medical student performance. All students entering the FMHS have English as a second language. This study focused on the issues of students' proficiency in English as measured by the TOEFL test, student background factors and interaction in problem-based learning (PBL) groups. Using a modification of Bales Interaction Process Analysis, four problem-based learning groups were observed over four thematic units, to measure the degree of student interaction within PBL groups and to compare this to individual TOEFL scores and key background variables. The students' contributions correlated highly with TOEFL test results in the giving of information (range r = 0.67-0.74). The female students adhered to interacting in English during group sessions, whereas the male students were more likely to revert to using Arabic in elaborating unclear phenomena (p < 0.01). The educational level of the student's mother was highly predictive of TOEFL scores for the male students, but not for female students. Multivariate analysis was undertaken to analyse the relative contribution of the TOEFL, parental education and years of studying in English. The best predictor of students' contributions in PBL groups was identified as TOEFL scores. The study demonstrates the importance of facilitating a locally acceptable level of English proficiency prior to admission to the FMHS. However, it also highlights the importance of not focusing only on English proficiency but paying attention to additional factors in facilitating medical students in maximizing benefits from interactions in PBL settings.

Effectiveness of problems used in problem-based learning.

Where problem-based learning (PBL) is the main method used in medical curricula, the literature suggests that it is crucial that the problems used are effective in facilitating students to identify relevant learning issues. These learning issues guide the students' studying. The present investigation explores the extent to which students identify relevant issues following exposure to prepared paper problems. In the preparatory year, in an Introduction to Medicine module, four groups of students were exposed to six themes (Health Care System, Environment and Health, Alternative and Islamic Medicine, Chronic Illness, Infectious Diseases, and Prevention and Health Promotion). Each group had two facilitators per theme. Having discussed the prepared problems, the students identified learning issues which were collected for the purpose of the study. Two content experts, using a Likert scale, analysed learning issues for their concordance to staff objectives per theme. Kappa coefficients were computed for the six PBL themes in order to assess inter-rater agreement. Learning issues identified as having no relationship to theme objectives were further analysed for their relevance to theme objectives. No objective was totally omitted by any student group. There was a 100% concordance of objectives to learning issues demonstrated over four themes. The relationship of learning issues to theme objectives ranged from 55-85% in the theme on health care system, and 73-94% in the theme on environment and health. Irrelevant learning issues were identified in the first two PBL themes addressed. Kappa coefficients over the six PBL themes varied from 0.49 to 0.82.