The eigenvalue complementarity problem (EiCP) is a kind of very useful model, which is widely used in the study of many problems in mechanics, engineering, and economics. The EiCP was shown to be equivalent to a special nonlinear complementarity problem or a mathematical programming problem with complementarity constraints. The existing methods for solving the EiCP are all nonsmooth methods, in...

OBJECTIVES Foundational elements of problem based learning (PBL) are triggers, tutors and students. Ineffective triggers are important issues for students' inability to generate appropriate learning issues. The objective of this study was to evaluate PBL triggers and to determine similarities of students' generated learning issues with predetermined faculty objectives. METHODS It was a retros...

It is now widely recognised that the transmission model of learning (as practised in universities through the traditional didactic procedure of teaching by lectures) suffers from a number of drawbacks. Memorising knowledge and reproducing it on demand does not develop a student’s reasoning skills or their ability to solve problems in new contexts. In order to do this, students need to be active...

Collaborative approaches such as Problem Based Learning (PBL) may provide the opportunity to bring together diverse students but their efficacy in practice and the complications that arise due to the mixed ethnicity needs further investigation. This study explores the key advantages and problems of heterogeneous PBL groups from the students' and teachers' opinions. Focus groups were conducted w...

For at least four decades there has been concern about the discontinuity between the discipline and practice of nursing. The learning traditions in nursing, including the traditional organization of professional educational curricula with an emphasis on general education, could be contributing to this discontinuity. Problem Based Learning (PBL) has been identified as one way to facilitate great...

To The Editor: Having read Dr Benamer’s views on medical teaching, we remembered our days as medical students [1]. We share Dr Benamer’s and other’s views that teaching in Libyan medical schools should shift from being subject focused to being learning focused [1,2]. We remember one incident when our professor showed us an ECG and asked about the diagnosis. He was so furious when none of us was...

The utility problem in explanation-based learning concerns the ability of learned rules or plans to actually improve the performance of a problem solving system. Previous research on this problem has focused on the amount, content, or form of learned information. This paper examines the effect of the use of learned information on performance. Experiments and informal analysis show that unconstr...

Latent Problem Solving Analysis is applied to model the decision processes of expert instructors judging professional pilots’ landing technique in a B747 flying simulator, showing that that a memory-based model can do well in the absence of more conscious, logical processes.