STUDY GUIDES - AN ESSENTIAL STUDENT LEARNING TOOL IN AN INTEGRATED CURRICULUM

The undergraduate medical curriculum in the United Arab Emirates Unive rsity has been in existence for just over a decade. It is integrated, organized in courses and modules, and has art increasing proportion of problem-based learning (PBL). Though educationally sound, PBL has pre sented the faculty and students with particular challenges. Used to a very teacher-centred approach to learning, and with the special local circumstances of the UAE, students needed much more support and encour agement in taking advantages of active learning and tutorial support t han their western counterparts would require. Study Guides have been a n important feature of this process and they have evolved to become a valuable supplement to the tutor's contribution and a day-to-day aid t o student learning.