ENHANCING
LEARNING IN BIOCHEMISTRY FOR FIRST YEAR DENTAL STUDENTS THROUGH
PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING (PBL)
Hoon Eng Khoo*Ph.D.,
Tin Wee Tan, Ph.D. and Tian Seng Teo, Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry,
Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 5 Science Drive 4,
Singapore 117597.
Problem-based learning (PBL) has been part of the 3rd year
curriculum in the Faculty of Dentistry, National University of Singapore
since 1996. Feedback from both students and teachers has been positive.
However, it has not been introduced to the earlier years because of the
increased demand on faculty time. Therefore, as a small project, one PBL
case was introduced in the section on Metabolism in the Biochemistry
module of the 1st year dental course to gauge whether it would
be feasible and also the response of the students to PBL. A short survey
to evaluate the students’ experience of the PBL sessions indicated 96%
agreed that the briefing had helped them understand the concepts, process
and educational implications of PBL. 82% agreed that the PBL unit had
helped them learn the targeted content. 78% believed that PBL could
enhance their skills in being independent and self-directed learners in
future. 75% wanted more PBL units to be introduced into dental teaching
and more importantly, 89% found the PBL sessions enjoyable. Overall, the
results suggest that PBL is effective in replacing some lectures in basic
biochemistry in the dental curriculum.
home
