Discusses problem-based learning and describes the occupational therapy programs at McMaster University and Shenandoah University. Compares similarities and differences and looks at issues involved in the implementation of the programs. (JOW)

Adult learning is problem centered, and adults are motivated by personal growth. Curriculum design should promote information integration, account for learning style differences, and include transfer strategies. Facilitators should offer a safe, comfortable environment, and exercises should have fidelity. (SK)

Evaluates the implementation of a curriculum that married a lecture-based first year program with a problem-based curriculum in the second year. Demonstrates how this unusual curricular structure was successful in improving students' perceptions of and performance in basic sciences. (Author/CCM)

Problem-based learning (PBL) as a professional development model is an authentic means of stimulating reflective, insightful, professional growth. This paper describes a conference session that modeled the PBL professional development model as participants engaged in an actual PBL and created their own PBL professional development model. The…

Typical on-the-job training is unstructured, inconsistent, and slow, yet it accounts for about 80 percent of learning that will occur on the job. More time should be devoted to planning problem-centered training programs and less to formal training. (JOW)

Analyzes the use of problem-based learning as a catalyst for developing and implementing curriculum for gifted students that is both challenging and constructivist in approach. It relates metacognition to problem-based learning and describes inservice programs developed for teachers and administrators at the College of William and Mary (Virginia).…

A few medical schools have introduced a significant innovation--the problem-based curriculum. Students meet in small tutorials and consider biomedical problems that they cannot solve without acquiring new information and skills. This experiment at Harvard gives "respectability" to the curriculum. (MLW)

Criticizes the trend in social studies education, led by Diane Ravitch, towards the revival of teaching history in a traditional manner. Claims that Ravitch's rationale for history's decline is faulty, ignoring the problems resulting from teaching history chronologically. Suggests that using the problem-centered approach will make history more…

Among the barriers to acceptance of clinical problem-based medical education are institutional complacency and lack of rewards for teachers with academic competence in education rather than biological research and clinical care. (MSE)

This response of the University of Southern California to the Institute of Medicine's 1995 report concerning the present status and future needs of dental education focuses on the report's influence in implementing a problem-based learning (PBL) option at USC. The PBL program's philosophy, goals, organization, faculty, admissions process, and…

Clinical scenarios used in rural medical education often convey inappropriate stereotypes that undermine the intent of the curriculum. Case writers should be clear about the learning or assessment objectives in each case, have access to people with appropriate expertise and understanding of the issues, and ensure that contextual and cultural…

This paper discusses the author's personal experiences in developing and implementing a problem-based college mathematics course for liberal arts majors. This project was initiated in response to the realization that most students are dependent on "patterning" learning algorithms and have no expectation that self-initiated thinking is a…