From case-based reasoning to problem-based learning.

Full Abstract

Many medical schools today are questioning whether they should implement a problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum. Educators have raised serious questions regarding the efficiency of PBL and therefore recommend learning more about the cognitive processes developed by PBL before implementing it broadly. In addition, it is important to determine whether PBL best matches the human reasoning process. The authors' theoretical discussion examines the relationship between the case-based reasoning (CBR) model and the PBL model. CBR indicates that the knowledge source one uses while solving a new problem includes not only generalized rules or general cases, but often a memory of stored cases recording specific prior episodes. CBR enables the reasoner to recommend solutions to problems quickly and to propose solutions in domains that are not completely understood, such as medicine. The authors' analysis reveals a strong association between the CBR and PBL models, and thus it can be argued that PBL is a successful teaching method that should be encouraged by medical schools.

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Author information

Author/s: Eshach, Haim (H); Bitterman, Haim (H);

Affiliation: Department of Science and Technology Education, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel. heshach(-atsign-)bgumail.bgu.ac.il

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges (Acad Med), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-May; vol 78 (issue 5) : pp 491-6

Dates: Created 2003/05/13; Completed 2003/06/19; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12742784, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Curriculum
Education, Medical, Undergraduate - methods
Humans

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