Undergraduate medical student's perceptions on traditional and problem based curricula: Pilot study

Objectives: to evaluate and compare students' perceptions about teaching and learning, knowledge and skills, outcomes of course materials and their satisfaction in traditional lecture based learning versus problem-based learning curricula in two different medical schools. methods: the comparative cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted in the department of physiology, college of medicine, king saud university, riyadh, saudi arabia, from july 2009 to january 2011. two different undergraduate medical schools were selected; one followed the traditional curriculum, while the other followed the problem-based learning curriculum. two equal groups of first year medical students were selected. they were taught in respiratory physiology and lung function lab according to their curriculum for a period of two weeks. at the completion of the study period, a five-point likert scale was used to assess students' perceptions on satisfaction, academic environment, teaching and learning, knowledge and skills and outcomes of course materials about effectiveness of problem-based learning compared to traditional methods. spss 19 was used for statistical analysis. results: students used to problem-based learning curriculum obtained marginally higher scores in their perceptions (24.10±3.63) compared to ones following the traditional curriculum (22.67±3.74). however, the difference in perceptions did not achieve a level of statistical significance. conclusions: students following problem-based learning curriculum have more positive perceptions on teaching and learning, knowledge and skills, outcomes of their course materials and satisfaction compared to the students belonging to the traditional style of medical school. however, the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant.