Table 3 Thematic content analysis from focus groups and interviews
Theme | Categories | Upper-level Codes with quotes |
|---|---|---|
PBL as a learning environment | • Skills gained | • Critical thinking • Communication skills • Presentation ○ ‘my ability to present now is far, far better’ |
• The PBL process | • Provides context (based-on real life) • Helps consolidate knowledge: ◦ ‘I think PBL is useful for my learning, because it helps me understand better what I do and what I do not know…in the beginning of the week I may know nothing …I will go and build up on that during the week. … the end of the week I consolidate what I learned’ • Learning with/from others (teaching): ◦ ‘ when someone in the group explains something to you, this stays in your head, it does not go anywhere. … that is nice’ ◦ ‘PBL is a critical component. I'm glad we have it’ • Self-Directed learning | |
• The PBL tutor | • Tutor background ◦ ‘…even with no science background may be really good facilitators’ ◦ ‘having a doctor as a first tutor was very helpful’ • Learning environment ◦ ‘…the biggest role they play is to create that kind of environment where you feel comfortable asking questions and that its discussion is allowed’ | |
• Group Dynamics | • Depth of knowledge pursued by group ◦ Other groups would focus on clinical aspect ◦ Group Dynamics: different experience depending on the background of the students. Students would be inclined to go into more depth on what they know ◦ Making sure that gaps are covered is group dependent • The functioning of the group ◦ Both are useful in learning and will be used later on as well. ‘Now we are learning and there's no right or wrong way of approaching it, as far as I'm aware, because we need both kinds of approaches’ ◦ Group Dynamics: the atmosphere/ chemistry of the group also matters. Will contribute more if you are more comfortable ◦ May engage in mature discussions ◦ May also pass on the wrong information if someone is assertive enough • Different groups ◦ ‘I have mostly positive experiences with different groupings’ | |
PBL as a learning environment in pharmacology | • The PBL case | • Drug learning objective generated • Linking the knowledge to the case is very helpful: ◦ ‘it is useful to go back to the case that we're actually looking at and we locate this is our patient.’ |
• Student Background | • Students with relevant background in pharmacology ◦ could be helpful in enriching learning or could hinder learning as the group relies on them | |
• PBL tutor | • Tutor background ◦ “expert content tutors and expert facilitators are the best for learning” | |
• Curriculum design | • Integration of PBL and lectures ◦ ‘we learn… from subjective reading, we get our resources, look at multiple sources and try to figure out what is right’ ◦ ‘Make pharmacology more coherent among the different PBL weeks. Pharmacology was a bit spread out,…harder to bring everything together’ • Level of knowledge ◦ “Lecturers presume that we have this base level of knowledge” ◦ “Loading students with so much information in relation to drugs in Year 1 is overwhelming” • Lack of prescribing • Spiral learning will help consolidate learning • Ways to improve the curriculum in pharmacology learning | |
• The PBL process | • Learning from/with others ◦ “great to go over things with people. It helps us find information on drugs.” “really good at putting things in perspective (drug and corresponding diagnosis).” | |
PBL as a learning environment and confidence in prescribing | • Confidence in prescribing | • Lack of confidence • Increase confidence by graduation ◦ ‘ I do not think I would feel confident, because we only think of a medicine in certain settings… for right now, it sort of feels like difficult to understand how medicines can be used in different settings and for different reasons, other to the specific case scenario in the PBL’ |
• Increase confidence | • Incorporate the use of prescribing guidelines and more application of knowledge • Incorporate “an integrated pharmacology course” • More pharmacology lectures • Have quizzes at the end of each lecture to help students test and consolidate their learning (e.g. “Teaching is great but needs to be more interactive.”) • Review/practice sessions (e.g ◦ “something to help determine the level of knowledge.”) • Clinical placements • Mind maps • Application of knowledge ◦ “Practice questions with explanations.” • Better consolidation of knowledge (e.g ◦ “initially provide a booklet for pharmacology to go back to’’ • Give drug options in PBL cases • Incorporate prescribing earlier and integrate prescribing in PBL (e.g. make report-back more of a discussion ‘so which drug would you use for this case, that kind of thing. So it's more of a problem-solving forcing you to like, apply your learning of that drug’ • Add prescribing workshops and reinforce application of knowledge (e.g. …”to have patients with different conditions where you have to weigh up decisions like a really helpful way of applying, applying the knowledge.”) |