Problem-Based Learning: Effects on the Early Acquisition of Cognitive Skill in Medicine

In this article, I present a longitudinal study comparing problem-solving performance for medical students trained using 2 different approaches to medical education. The first approach is the traditional medical education that involves lectures supplemented by laboratory exercises. The second approach is problem-based learning (PBL). In PBL, students learn basic science in small groups in the context of authentic patient problems. Because an expected outcome of medical education is to move students along the path from naive laypersons to novice physicians, the effects of these approaches should be understood in terms of how they affect the early acquisition of cognitive skill. The results indicate that there are important cognitive benefits of the PBL approach.