Every semester during the Problem Based Learning (PBL) sessions at Bond University, there are a number of roles that every group member has to rotate through. In total, there are 12 weeks in a semester in the Medical Program and roughly 7 or 8 students in each group, so there are some repeats. The roles are outlined below and some of the tasks that each role invovles. These roles may change from Year 1 to Year 2 as the students become more self-managing. The roles are as follows;
- Chair
- Scribe
- Recorder
- Resource Persons x2
- Reflector
- LI Tracker
Guidelines
The guidelines states that EACH GROUP MEMBER, irrespective of his/her assigned role during the week, is expected to undertake the following:
- Take responsibility for observing and promoting ground rules, which will include treating all group members with respect, irrespective of their gender, culture, socio-economic background, etc.
- Actively participate by listening, asking questions, challenging others, generating hypotheses and LIs and sharing opinions and information
- Researching ALL the Learning Issues during the week (i.e. NO DIVISION OF LABOUR as this is does not happen in real life when dealing with patients)
- Depending on the level of prior learning, set personal LIs in order to understand the case
- Regularly engage in self-evaluation and solicit feedback to identify contributions and to identify gaps in knowledge, skills or appropriate behaviour
- Use feedback to improve personal learning and group work skills, and
- Provide feedback to peers and the Facilitator
Chair
The chair ensures that the steps and processes of PBL are followed during the session. During the session they keep the group running on time based on the suggestion by the Facilitator in terms of the triggers available. To encourage a healthy group environment, they get all group members to participate, especially in terms of using the white boards and drawing up diagrams. Often, the scribe who is writing away at the whiteboard, is often forgottten about so the Chair makes sure to keep the scribe up with the Group’s discussion as well as participating in generating ideas.
Other roles of the chair include:
- Makes sure that the Recorder has documented the Group’s deliberations at the end of the Case
- Opening with a minimum requirement of a mind-map (Semesters 1 & 2 only), hypotheses generated and ranked/prioritised comprehensive learning issues (LIs)
- On the final day, allocates the task of summarising (without notes) the problem, highlighting the key points, hypotheses generated and decisions the Group has made
- Makes sure that on the final day, he/she is well organised in terms of relating back to the case and applying and integrating newly acquired knowledge and skills
- Makes sure that the Group, through the Reflector, reflects on the activities and events of the Week/Block (as appropriate) and provides feedback to the Bond School of Medicine
Scribe
The scribe, although is slaving away at the whiteboard!!, still contributes to the discussion, hypothesis generation and identification of LIs (i.e. is still an active participant in the discussion). The priamry role of the scribe is exactly what it means, to listens to the Group’s discussion and organises the information on the white board in a neat and organised way. Because they are the writers, they have to regularly check the accuracy of the white board and make sure the information is right. If they require help they can ask other members to help with explaining and documenting on the white board.
Recorder
The recorders' role lies primarily between the PBL opening session and closing session each week. They record (take a picture of) the information on the white board. They have to make a mind map consisting of:
- The list of possible hypotheses (including those refuted)
- Comprehensive Learning Issues (in the form of a question or a statement with a verb) that have been prioritised by the group
They then post this mind map on the Bond University 'Blackboard' online platform called iLearn and inform the Facilitator and the group members. This way, the mind-map will be available during the Case Wrap-up (PBL Closing session) as the discussion will involve a reassessment of the decisions made during the Case Opening. The final role of the recorder is to briefly present the patient and remind the Group of the hypotheses generated about the patient.
Resource Persons (x2)
The PBL process during the Case Opening requires students to activate prior knowledge and call on past experience to identify what they already know about the problem during the brainstorming session. Looking up information without brainstorming defeats the purpose of PBL. The aim is to test your knowledge and explore other possible diagnoses.
During the Case Opening, when there should be minimal need to access information, the Resource persons are priamrily responsible for looking up unfamiliar words and terms when the case is read if there is no consensus of the meaning. They also research information if the Group cannot move forward without a critical piece of information. All sources of information need to be trustworthy as researching from peer-reviewed articles and reputable web sources forms good habit and provides accurate information.
There are two resource people because they have to find information in which they are both in agreement of. This improves the validity of the information.
Learning Issues Tracker
The LIs generated by the Group need to be mapped to these expected Faculty learning outcomes (LOs) / syllabus. This is important as assessment such as mid-semester quizzes and end of semester examinations are based on these LOs. By the end of each semester, the groups will have mapped their LIs to the case, block, semester and yearly LOs, as appropriate.
Each week, the LI Tracker will be responsible for the activities described below:
- Getting the Group to generate LIs, based on "What do we need to know to fully explain this case/problem from all perspectives" – scientific, social, environmental, psychological?
- Ensuring that the LIs are sufficiently explicit to allow any student to understand the depth that is expected. LIs can be in the form of questions or can be statements but must contain a verb and, where appropriate, have the patient’s name
- With the help of the Group, prioritise the LIs so that time can be allocated appropriately during self-study
Reflector
The final step in the 8-step PBL process (which is explained below) is an evaluation of the Group’s functioning and the contributions of different group members. There is no prescribed way for conducting Step 8 so students should experiment with developing ways of soliciting feedback and providing constructive feedback to peers.
This semester we had a range of feeback exercises. One such exercise was to write positive + negative aspects/feelings at the start of medical school. Then in the final week, we wrote what we were feeling at the end of Semester 1. The facilitator then handed us back the two to compare and to reflect on how we have progressed through our Semester 1 of studies.
The next article will cover the 8 Important Steps in PBL.
