Comparison of students and facilitators' perception of implementing problem based learning.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the perception of facilitators and students on the implementation of PBL, based on their experience. METHOD A questionnaire based survey was conducted on 186 first and second year students and 25 faculty members. RESULT The responses of faculty members and students were analyzed using Chi-square and a P-value < 0.05 was considered significant. Comparison between faculty members and students for implementation of PBL showed that in the faculty (both junior and senior) 26.27% disagreed, 27.09% were neutral and 46.22% agreed with implementation of PBL whereas in the students group 9.87% disagreed, 10.94% were neutral and 79.17% agreed (p = 0.000). When senior and junior faculty was compared the seniors showed that 36.8% disagreed, 32.2% were neutral and 30.98% agreed whereas in the junior faculty 18.2% disagreed, 22.8% were neutral and 58.97% agreed (p = 0.000). CONCLUSION For implementing this strategy there is support from the academic administration (principal and faculty responsible for implementation of the PBL-based curriculum). Junior faculty members (instructors) give encouraging results. Students are supportive of this strategy and learning attained by this method. However senior faculty is not very enthusiastic about implementation of this strategy.