PBL tutors in medical schools worldwide are a diverse population of faculty (subject-expertise, employment status and tutoring experience). Tutors often receive a common initial training program followed by structured support. This study aims to understand tutor motivation, challenges and support needed, the relationship between them, and whether…

At the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, senior medical student volunteers are used as tutors for some problem-based learning groups in both the first and second years. Previous studies on the advantages and disadvantages of student tutors compared to faculty tutors have been equivocal. This study expected to answer the…

How people learn is influenced by the cultural contexts in which their learning occurs. This qualitative case study explored challenges Korean medical students and tutors experienced during their PBL sessions from a cultural perspective using Hofstede's cultural dimensions. Twelve preclinical medical students and nine tutors from a large Korean…

Although Malaysia was the first country in Asia to adopt problem-based learning (PBL), the impact that this has had on its tutors remains largely unexplored. This paper details a qualitative study of the changing perceptions of teaching roles in two groups of problem-based learning tutors in two institutional contexts--one in medicine located in…

Scholars have noted PBL is consistent with John Dewey's educational theories and with constructivist philosophies. This paper explores the similarities between the assumptions within Howard Barrows' principles for the PBL tutor's actions with Dewey's theories that address teacher behaviors and with Carl Rogers's conceptual frameworks that support…

Despite years of primary research on problem-based learning and literature reviews, no systematic effort has been made to analyze the relationship between tutor characteristics and student learning outcomes. In an effort to fill that gap the following meta-analysis coded 223 outcomes from 94 studies with small but positive gains for PBL students…