Problem-Based Learning: From where to where?

From The Clinical Teacher June 2005 issue

Thirty-six years ago I was first caught up in problem-based learning (PBL) at McMaster University in Canada. PBL was the energising but controversial innovation of the time. Three recent occasions remind us that it remains so:

1. In The Clinical Teacher David Taylor described introducing PBL at Liverpool1. His title made it sound daunting: 'Reflections from the salt mines'.
2. Dr Pham Thi Tam from Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Vietnam sought help from members of the Network: TUFH to establish PBL. Advice and experience was shared through the pages of its newsletter: 'If there is determination to do so, you should have no difficulty'.
3. At AMEE 2004 a review of the evidence for the value of PBL left some developing countries, committed to PBL, expressing new anxieties: 'Had they backed a loser? 'Is PBL a winner or a loser? Where did it come from, where may it go? The editor asked for my personal reflection.

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