ASSESSMENT OF EXAM PERFORMANCE AFTER CHANGE TO PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING- DIFFERENTIAL-EFFECTS BY QUESTION TYPE

Background: More consistent differences have been found between studen ts educated with problem-based learning (PBL) and those taught in trad itional methods in clerkship performance than on examinations. Purpose s: To determine if change to a PBL method in a single course influence s students' performance on specific types of examinations compared to courses taught to the same students in a lecture-based format. Methods : From 1994 to 1995 a large component of the 2nd-year program was chan ged from lecture based to PBL. The rest of the course material remaine d in standard lecture format. A standard, year-end exam and a research exam based on clerkship skills were administered for both subjects in 1994 and 1995. Results: The performance of the 1995 class on the stan dard exam was significantly lower than that of the 1994 class on all s ubjects, regardless of teaching method (p < .05). On the segment the r esearch exam designed to mimic clerkship performance, the 1995 student s did equally well on the PBL-taught material as the 1994 students. On the non-PBL material, they did significantly worse (p < .05). Conclus ions: In comparison to courses taught in stable didactic format, we co nclude that PBL may confer a selective advantage on exam questions tha t relate to clerkship performance. We suggest that the reason for the specific advantage on these kinds of exam questions relates to the con cept of elaborated versus dispersed knowledge. Copyright (C) 1998 Lawr ence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.