Preliminary evaluation of a new curriculum--incorporation of problem-based learning (PBL) into the traditional format

Abstract

This account of the establishment of a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) curriculum at the Eric Williams Medical Science Complex, Trinidad and Tobago, provides the forum for a critical analysis of this process, and for dialogue with relevant literature on similar attempts elsewhere. Initial resistance to change and the assessment of the new system is discussed in light of the fact that this was the first Caribbean territory to adopt PBL as the major instrument to be employed in tertiary level medical education. The analysis uncovers a model of practitioner/researcher that provides a useful conceptual and operational framework for the articulation of the role of those engaged in effecting and studying the management of change