Problem-Based Learning in basic science teaching: a second semester experience in a University Center Medical School

Abstract

The pedagogical project in the Medical School of a University Center, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was designed to meet the requirementsof the Brazilian national medical curriculum guidelines, aiming to graduate generalist physicians with humanist,critical and reflective skills who are able to work at different levels of the health care system. Adopting the Problem-BasedLearning (PBL) methodology in a large portion of the curriculum meets this purpose. The first two years of the curriculum havesix months long modules that develop integrated and interdisciplinary content, approaching the basic premedical sciences,and they are given along with the syllabus called “Introduction to PBL”, in which clinical problems related to the conceptsof basic sciences taught in modules are discussed. The main objective of “Introduction to PBL” is the development of clinicalreasoning skills and encouraging the pursuit of knowledge through self-directed study. This paper is a report of the experiencewith that discipline in the second semester of the Medical School course. We present the historical context and conceptualframework of the methodology, the problems discussed with the students in our syllabus and the concepts of basic sciencesrelated to them, the role of tutors, the challenges encountered and the methods of assessment used.