PBL 's

matrix · Rookie Joined: 06 Oct 2008 Posts: 3 Location: melbourne

I'm just wondering if someone could explain how the PBL groups
operate in med. school. When you start in first year is everybody
randomly assigned to a group e.g 8- 10 students in a group ?
What happens if you are unhappy in your group. Are you able
to transfer somewhere else and do PBL'S continue as part of the
course for 1,2 or more years? Confused

Adrian · Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 4:02 pm Post subject:

I can only speak for how PBL is run at Griffith University - this may be different for other schools.

8 or 9 students are assigned to a particular PBL group, and are not selected at random. They are chosen on the basis of their background to ensure there is enough of a spread in each PBL of the biomed/sci variety, allied health students, and non-sci students.

If you don't like your PBL group, the mentality is that you need to just get over it and do your work. I support this way of thinking, because you can't chose your collegues in the real world. You can, however, chose your job. If you don't like it - leave. Don't expect someone else to fix your problems. Having said that, special considerations can be made if it is affecting the flow of the entire PBL process.

PBL is the crux of the curriculum for the first 2 years - the 'pre-clinical' years. Each semester, you are assigned to a new PBL group, so you will have a total of 4 different PBL groups in your first 2 years. However, you will get a new PBL facillitator at the beginning of each block, such as cardiology, or respiratory.

For example, we got assigned to a new group of students at the beginning of semester 2. Our first block was cardiology, and we had a facillitator for that. When we started doing respiratory, we stayed in the same group, but got a new facillitator. After that was renal block, and again, we stayed in the same group, but got a new facillitator. Now for the beginning of second year (or semester 3), we will get a new PBL group.

matrix · Rookie Joined: 06 Oct 2008 Posts: 3 Location: melbourne

Thanks Adrian for explaining how pbl's work. It makes sense to
consider everyone's background when they assign the students
to groups. A group which contains solely students with arts back-
grounds might struggle with the science elements of the course
and not progress at an acceptable rate. Confused