Problem Based Learning or Lecture, A New Method of Teaching Biology to First Year Medical Students: An Experience

Introduction. In the previous studies in the field of medical education, problem based learning and lecture based learning have been compared, but, due to the learning habits of Iranian students and special condition of education, the effects of these two methods have been less investigated in Iranian universities so far. This study attempts to compare the effects of these two methods on students’ knowledge in molecular biology course and also to assess students’ attitude towards this course in problem based learning group. Methods. This quasi-experimental study was applied on first year medical students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (64 students). Half of the students, after taking part in a 3 day PBL workshop for learning the needed skills, started working in PBL groups under the supervision of the students of higher levels. The control group spent the course with the traditional lecture method. At the end of the course, students’ knowledge was assessed by multiple choice questions and short answer essay questions in both groups and also the attitude of experimental group was assessed by a questionnaire. The data was analyzed by SPSS software using t-test. Results. The mean score of knowledge was 14.3±1.7 and 12.8±1.8 in the experiment and control group, respectively. There was a significant difference between the knowledge score of the experiment and control groups. The attitude of the experimental group towards the applied educational method was positive. Conclusion. The present study revealed that Problem Based Learning method was successful compared with current learning methods. More studies are recommended to consider replacing the current educational methods with problem based learning method. .