Mar 20, 1998 - pin the curriculum: a holistic attitude to patient care, and the pro- motion of oral health. Basic sciences and clinical dentistry are integrated within ...
EW f Denf Educ 1998; 2: 103-114 Printed in Denmark.All rights resewed
Copyright 8 Munksgaard 1998 it R l ‘ i , , ,
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Dental Education ISSN 1396-5883
The Malmo model: a problem-based learning curriculum in undergraduate dental education Madeleine Rohlin, Kerstin Peterson and Gunnel Svensater Faculty 01Odontology in Mnlnio, Lund Uniwrsity, Swedeti
A new undergraduate dental curriculum was introduced in Malmo in 1990 which is based on problem-based learning (PBL). The principles of PBL are strongly influenced by evidence from cognitive psychology and they form the educational strategy throughout the whole curriculum. Two further essential principles underpin the curriculum: a holistic attitude to patient care, and the promotion of oral health. Basic sciences and clinical dentistry are integrated within a structure based on oral conditions prevalent in the community. Students are encouraged to build their new knowledge, understanding and skills into the context of what they have already learned. This approach is facilitated by the presentation of conceptual models, one of which, The Oral Ecosystem
is described in detail. The educational programme also gives students opportunities to learn in the clinical context from an early stage, and we endeavour to promote a scientific attitude from the very beginning of the programme. This paper describes the curriculum at three organisational levels (whole curriculum, single course, individual week).
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and technology but also in social relationships and ethics is such that capabilities that are appropriate at the time of graduation are unlikely to remain so a decade later. Education, if defined as transmission of ”subject matter” and absorption by the student of objective facts, is no longer enough. Instead, learning that stimulates the situation of knowledge in the living context (1) and helps the imposition of order on the environment (including the understanding of one’s own personal responses and human relations) is necessary. It is crucial that individuals gain good judgement and work well with each other in a learning society. Teachers need to empower the experience of learning as an interactive process in which people learn from each other. Furthermore, a learning attitude has to be cultivated to promote lifelong learning. Knowledge can be considered as a qualitative unity. “Knowledge constitutes a change within the individual ... a qualitative change of the eyes through which we interpret the surrounding world” (2). Knowledge in this respect can be presented as a series of semantic networks of inter-related concepts (3, 4) that provide a means of understanding the world and should not be confused with ”textbook knowledge”. Only when information is integrated into an individual’s semantic network that reflects their own experiences, \.iews and
N SEPTEMBER 1990, a
new undergraduate curriculum was started in Malmo after intake into the previous undergraduate dental education system had been closed for 6 years. At the time of writing, 3 cohorts have graduated, and assessments indicate that the programme works well. The new curriculum has awakened a substantial and widespread interest among faculties of different disciplines, in particular, from those involved in health education. Although some relevant material has been published, it has not been in a form which has allowed easy access to the international health profession education community. we consider it worthwhile, therefore, to present some of the concepts of the curriculum and how it is implemented here. The paper is written against the backdrop of changes which are occurring in higher education and society in general.
A changing environment for higher education Changes in higher education are based on the paradigm that we are leaving the industrial society and entering a learning society. An increasing need for human competence to cope with change and the unknown is emphasised. The rapidity of change not only in science
Key words: conceptual models; education, dental, undergraduate; problem-based learning: spiral curriculum. 0 Munksgaard, 1998 Accepted for publication 20 March 1998
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Rohlh et al. ideas, will it be available and functional for future purposes. Learning should be meaningful, creative, and permissive. The r6le of teaching is to support learning. Of the forces driving change, the scientific discoveries and technological inventions that we experience in all fields, including health care, are pivotal. These not only place greater demands on an individual’s analytical skills in general but also create a need, in particular, for health workers to be able to assess the cost and risk benefits in the use of new diagnostic and therapeutic techniques. To cope with the dynamic state of society, the changing pattern of diseases and rapidly advancing technology, a clear understanding of the links between basic sciences, technology assessment and health-care systems is crucial. In the future, we will need to be able to search for correct information in a cost-effective manner and to use accepted methods of statistical inference to make informed decisions and proper estimates. The vigorous trend toward evidence-based health care can be seen as a reflection of changing health care (5-7). To ensure that future health workers would meet the needs of the changing environment, reports (8-11) made recommendations that health education should encourage the development of learning characteristics such as critical thinking, decision making, active and autonomous learning and problem solving. Several medical schools have determined that problem-based learning (PBL) is an educational strategy that would aid in the development of such characteristics.
Problem-based learning - a short description An edircational strategy based on evidence porn cognitive psychology Current evidence in cognitive psychology has implications for learning and teaching (for a review, see Regehr & Norman (4)).Accordingly, 3 conditions play a major r61e in learning (12). (i) Actimtiotr of prior knowledge. “The prior knowledge people have regarding a subject is the most important determinant of the nature and amount of new information that can be processed” (13). Since learning, by its nature, has a restructuring character, it presupposes activation of prior knowledge, thereby creating a context through which new information could be related to an individual’s existing knowledge. Knowledge may be present in memory, but it is not directly accessible. By, for example, discussing meaningful tasks, we can invoke this knowledge, so-called activation of prior knowledge (4). ( i i ) Eniotlrti
