FACULTY ATTITUDES AND OPINIONS ABOUT PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING

Background. Systematic research on faculty attitudes toward problem-ba sed learning (PBL) has focused exclusively on the opinions of tutors. The purpose of the present study was to examine the attitudes of facul ty at a single medical school who either (1) did not participate in th e first year of a new PBL curriculum or (2) participated in ways other than as PBL tutors. Method. In 1993-94, at the end of the first year of a new PBL curriculum, a questionnaire used in an earlier, larger st udy of PBL tutors was sent to all 494 faculty at the University of Mis souri - Columbia School of Medicine. Results. The response rate was be tter for participants (76%, 115 of 151) than for non-participants (28% , 96 of 343). Overall, nonparticipants judged the new curriculum to be approximately equal to the ''old'' curriculum that preceded it. In co ntrast, participants were significantly more positive and judged the n ew PBL curriculum to be superior in most respects. For both groups the new curriculum received its highest ratings in the areas of student i nterest, clinical preparation, and medical reasoning and its lowest ra tings in the teaching of factual knowledge in the basic sciences and e fficiency of learning. The attitudes of participating faculty varied w ith their teaching roles in the new curriculum. Those whose primary ro les were as PBL tutors or as leaders of other small discussion groups were more favorable to the new curriculum than those who primarily ser ved as lecturers. Faculty who served in several different roles were m ore positive than faculty who served in only one role. There were also plausible qualitative differences among the teaching-role groups in w hat they liked and disliked about the new curriculum. Conclusion. In g eneral, the attitudes and opinions of the faculty varied with the degr ees and types of participation in the new curriculum. The attitudes an d opinions of faculty with different teaching roles were plausibly rel ated to differences in these roles. The opinions of the faculty about the strengths and weaknesses of PBL that emerged in this survey are mu ch like those found in prior research. In addition, student performanc es on Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination sugges t that the faculty may have underestimated the value of the new PBL cu rriculum for helping students acquire factual knowledge in the basic s ciences.