Against All Odds: 20 Years of PBL in the Philippines

10.6145/jme201617

Nemuel S. Fajutagana

problem-based learning ； Philippines ； medical education

Journal of Medical Education

20卷3期（2016 / 09 / 01）

164 - 175

英文

Since 1994, eight (8) medical schools were documented to have adopted Problem-Based Learning as an educational approach in the Philippines and by 2014, five (5) are still in PBL while three (3) decided, after few years of implementation, to shift back to the traditional curriculum. What can we learn from the experiences of these schools? This study looked into the factors that influenced schools' decision to adopt then abandon, or continue using PBL. A survey was conducted among administrators of the eight (8) medical schools using a questionnaire that asked both close and open ended questions. Quantitative data were analyzed using Excel while response to open ended questions were analyzed using Nvivo 10. Results show that there is a strong relationship between age of school, total student population and length of PBL implementation. Results also show that preparedness in all aspects of PBL implementation, can offset the impact of school's age and student population due to more positive attitude of administrators, faculty, and students toward innovation and change. While graduates' performance in the National Licensure Examination (NLE) for Physician is the most often cited reason for abandoning or not embracing PBL, results have shown that there is no difference in NLE performance between graduates of post-PBL and PBL schools. Graduates of PBL schools actually performed better overall compared to the rest of the non PBL schools. Experiences of the eight (8) schools highlighted the importance of implementing PBL right the first time and for the right reasons. Overall, schools that opted to continue with PBL proved to their Philippine medical school counterparts, that PBL works and deserves another look especially with the upcoming national implementation of Outcome-Based Education. On the traditional schools that opted to go back to traditional curriculum, they brought back with them the best of small-group and case-based learning.

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