Learning Accomplishment for Oral Surgery: Integrated v.s. Separated PBL Courses

Thammasat University is the first Thai Dental School which uses problem-based learning (PBL) method. We have reported that learning technique focusing on small group discussion and self-directed learning was more effective than lecture-based learning. The other keyword of PBL is integration of related subjects. Practically, course administration to integrate them may be difficult because of time and resource limitations. Sometimes, we had to separate them into small modules. Objective: The objective of this study is to determine learning accomplishment for oral and maxillofacial surgery courses of 103 Thammasat University Dental Students, comparing between the 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 academic year courses which were integrated PBL courses and 2006/2007 academic year course which was separated PBL course. Method: The scores from 5th year MCQ pre-clinic tests of these students were analyzed and compared by one-way analysis of variance. Result: The mean scores of 2004/2005, 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 Dental Students were 62.50±13.18, 64.03±8.53 and 65.25±13.42 respectively, which were not statistically different (p = .6679). Conclusions: The result suggested that the learning accomplishment for oral and maxillofacial surgery of the integrated PBL course was not different from the separated PBL course. Integration of related subjects may not be the critical issue for the PBL.