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June 2009KUWAIT MEDICAL JOURNAL 125Table 3: Responses of both tutors and students to the question “Are you content with PBL?”Research populationTutorsStudentsAre you content with PBLYes I am indecisive No Totaln % n % n % n %7311754.974.5262319.514.6341725.610.8133157100.0100.0PBL = Problem based learningRESULTSMajority of the tutors (87.5%) and students (97.1%)responded to the questionnaire. 66.9% tutors answered“yes” to the question, “Is PBL an application that is ingeneral beneficial to the student?”. When the answerwas evaluated according to the departments, it wasdetermined that this answer was mostly given bythe tutors employed in departments of basic sciences(80.6%, Table 1).The question, “Are you content with PBL?” wasanswered as “yes” by 54.9% tutors. When the answerwas evaluated with regards to the tutors’ departments, itwas determined, once again, that the answer “yes” wasmostly given by tutors employed in the departmentsof basic sciences (74.2%, Table 2). 74.5% students alsoanswered “yes” to this question (Table 3).Among the close-ended questions those aimedat determining the opinion of tutors and studentsabout the extent of PBL’s contribution to certainsubject headings, “it contributed” response was tickedby most of the tutors and students for statements,“interpersonal relationships, adaptation to teamwork”and “developing communicational skills”, respectively(Table 4).When the mean scores obtained from the responsesto the above-mentioned questions were compared, asignificant difference was observed between the meanscores given by the tutors and the students. It wasdetermined that the students gave higher scores to thesix items given in Table 5 (p < 0.05).DISCUSSIONIt was observed that similar results have beenobtained with studies in the literature which aim todetermine opinion of tutors and students about PBLapplication in medical education [17-21] . Our studyrevealed that the majority of the tutors in charge ofPBL sessions felt that PBL was a beneficial applicationfor the students and that they were content with PBL.Additionally, it was found that a great majority of tutorsfelt that PBL offers significant contribution to studentsin areas, which were considered as the superior aspectsof PBL when compared to conventional education.It was a striking finding that the number of tutorswho were content with PBL and thought that PBLwas beneficial to the students were higher in thedepartments of basic sciences when compared to theother departments. Since PBL is an education modelthat is used in basic sciences in medical education,the answers given by the tutors employed in thesedepartments become more important. Additionally,the high rate of students (74.5%) who are contentwith PBL is an eminently important finding. Whenthe mean scores of the study groups given to itemsaimed to determine skills that are better acquiredthrough PBL than through conventional educationwere compared, it was found that the mean scoresgiven by the students were higher for eight items. Thisfinding shows that the students feel that PBL makespositive contributions in terms of skills mentioned inthose items. In the light of these findings, it may beTable 4: The percentage of tutors and students who said “it contributed” and “it contributed well enough” with PBL’s contributionin certain subject headingsSubject headingsInterpersonal relationships, adaptation to teamworkSkill of telling the information gained to othersDeveloping the skill of communicationSelf-directed learning and use of resourceDeveloping the skill logical thinkingUsing the information sources like library and internet for access to informationProblem solving skillDeveloping the skill of decision-takingIntegrating obtained knowledgeSkill of selecting useful information among information sourcesIncreasing the motivation for learningThe development of the skill of approaching the patient as a biopsychosocial wholeTutorsStudentsn % n %95958886818080706664635771.471.466.764.761.460.660.652.650.048.547.742.91051161231061231011211221118111411761.868.272.462.472.460.171.271.865.348.268.368.8