Problem Based Teaching in Indoor Air Science and Practice

Abstract

This paper discuss experiences with problembased training by a group under the EU-funded ERASMUS program, and experiences at the MPH-program at Aarhus University in Denmark as well as it gives views on the structure and content of a possible common core curriculum, students etc. Problembased training has been applied for long time at Limburg University in Maastricht, The Netherlands. Under the European student exchange (ERASMUS) program an international group of teachers joined to teach a crew of international student group (postgraduates) in Brussels in a week using problembased teaching. The subject of the course was Environment and Health. The program was organized with a few introductory lectures linked to a following group work (with a facilitating tutor), and the next day presentations and discussion among the whole group of students and tutors. The conclusion of the report on the experiment was that the method was useful even in a very mixed group, and highly motivating for the teachers. Similarly, at the MPH-school at Aarhus University, the method has given good experiences in a multidisciplinary group of mature students. Their task have been to evaluate health problems during a month achieving, evaluating literature, and using a strategic algorithm based on 1) problem analysis, 2) setting goals and target groups, 3) selecting intervention, 3) implementation of intervention, and 4) evaluation. An example has been childhood asthma and indoor air pollution. It is suggested that a common core curriculum is constructed as a: 1. Spiraled curriculum, so that students can start at different levels, 2) That subjects is based on a public health point of view, 3) that students should first of all be trained as experts within their discipline, and 4) that training is done as cross-disciplinary group work with facilitating tutors using a problem based training technique.