The Guinea pigs of a problem-based learning curriculum

Abstract

Participants in a study on learning the clinical aspects of medicine in a problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum repeatedly referred to themselves as ‘Guinea pigs’ at the mercy of a curriculum experiment. This article interrogates and problematises the ‘Guinea pig’ identity ascribed to and assumed by the first cohort of students who undertook a PBL curriculum. The article suggests that a range of issues may have come into play in the unfortunate events reported on here, and focuses on the participants’ reported experiences of marginalisation during their clinical education modules in the hospital wards. The impact of power differentials on identity formation was found to be exacerbated by the ‘Guinea pig’ characterisation.

Keywords:

• problem-based learning
• curriculum
• student identity
• hegemony
• marginalisation

Notes

1. The University of KwaZulu-Natal was formed through a merger in 2004. In the late 1990s NRMSM was a faculty of the University of Natal.

2. Facilitator: Non-expert who guided the PBL tutorials through a collegial, non-authoritative process to enable the students to achieve the learning goals for each of the paper-cases through the eight-step PBL process.

3. All names are pseudonyms.

4. MSRC-Medical Students Representative Council.

5. Dissecting hall – refers to the laboratory where human cadavers are persevered and dissected for the teaching of Human anatomy.

6. Chem Path – refers to the discipline of Chemical Pathology that is the study of disease using chemical means and analysis of bodily fluids.