Studying Anatomy through a Problem-Based Learning Approach

Abstract

Introduction The problem based learning is a pedagogical method that seeks to optimize the acquisition of knowledge by taking into account in particular principles derived from acquired knowledge in cognitive psychology We wanted to assess feelings of our students about this approach in anatomy Materials and methods Eighty three undergraduate students took part in the survey Various activities to introduce problem based learning in anatomy included lectures workshops and demonstrations of mannequins and other composite parts For each problem students were divided into small groups to facilitate the use of knowledge gained in anatomy the discussion and the reasoning They had time to manage and were evaluated at the end of this learning An opinion questionnaire was then given to the students to obtain their opinion concerning this teaching method Students degree of agreement was measured according to the Likert scale Results The behavior of students during this problem based approach has been very positive in anatomy For of them the approach based on problem based learning in anatomy is a stimulating and intuitive method even if conventional teaching lectures remains unavoidable Conclusion The pedagogical experience that we report for a fundamental discipline is limited However it testifies to the good receptivity of students in anatomy for the problem based learning