Does tutor subject-matter expertise influence student achievement in the problem-based learning curriculum at UNITRA Medical School?

Objective. To establish whether or not tutor subject-matter expertise influ ences student achievement in content-based examinations in the problem-base d learning (PBL) curriculum at the University of Transkei (UNITRA) Medical School. Design. A retrospective study of MB ChB In student achievement in end-of-bl ock modified essay questions (MEQ) examinations in microbiology, pathology and pharmacology for the years 1994 - 1999, inclusive. Pooled scores from t he expert-tutored groups were compared with those from the groups tutored b y non-experts using analysis of variance (ANOVA) or t-test. Subject expert tutors were those with postgraduate specialisation in the given discipline. Setting. The Medical School, Faculty of Health Sciences, UNITRA, Umtata. Outcome measures. Whether pooled mean MEQ scores in end-of-block examinatio ns for microbiology pathology or pharmacology differ according to the subje ct-matter expertise of the tutor. Results. There were no significant differences in mean scores obtained for pharmacology (51.1 +/- 0.6 versus 52.6 +/- 0.7, P = 0.109) and pathology (4 9.8 +/- 0.6 versus 49.9 +/- 0.8, P = 0.919). The difference between the sco res in microbiology was small (3 percentage points) but statistically signi ficant, with the groups tutored by microbiologists scoring higher than thos e tutored by pathologists or pharmacologists (54.1 +/- 1.0 versus 51.2 +/- 0.8, P = 0.032). Conclusions. These data demonstrate that in the UNITRA Medical School PBL c urriculum tutor subject-matter expertise has little or no influence on stud ent achievement in the discrete areas of tutor expertise.