Abstract:

The Medicine degree at Universitat Jaume I will complete its first 6-years cycle on the academic year 2016-2017. In the meanwhile, and under the initiative of the Degree Management Board (DMB), since 2012 some strategies and teaching approaches have been revised to fine-tune the degree. In ICERI2015 (Coltell et al., 2015:3903-3909), we described how the Vertical Integration Committee (VIC) designed an integrated roadmap for introducing the scientific method into the three first academic years of the Medicine degree. In INTED2016 (Coltell et al., 2016:6054-6061), we presented how to implement the Project-Based Learning (PBL) approach in the Medicine based on a Spiral Implementation Model for PBL (SIM-PBL), generating instances of SIM-PBL taking a few subjects of the first semesters, engaging a specific PBL life-cycle to implement the scientific method inside of the ordinary degree life-cycle. The SIM-PBL implementation had to start in the academic year 2015-2016.

Well. The academic year 2015-2016 is almost closed and, fortunately, we could introduce the SIM-PBL implementation in a Basic subject of the second semester, specifically in “MD1112. Documentation and Information Resources (General)”. In the next academic year, the plan will include another Basic subject of the third semester, “MD1101. Biostatistics (Statistics)” (subject codes come from the first version of the Medicine Curricula, when MD1101 was in the 2nd semester, and MD1112 in the 3rd semester, but the curricula revision swiped the order of both subjects).

The aim in this work is to describe results (not yet definitive in the life-cycle) obtained from the SIM-PBL implementation in the case of the “MD1112. Documentation and Information Resources (General)” subject, and quantify the success level of the pilot PBL life-cycle broken down in its six processes, from “Definition of the scope of PBL in the degree curriculum” until “Introduction of technologies”. No formal surveys were implemented but we have a lot of student feedback coming from email messages, personal comments, and also oral presentations.

We said in INTED2016 (Coltell et al., 2016:6054-6061): “The next academic year will show us if our plan is right or not.” Our conclusion is that our plan is right, but some enhancements are needed, as, for example, more coordination in teaching, more homogenization in subject units and contents, and more time spent in introducing the approach to the students. We hope the next academic year will be better.

Keywords:

Scientific Method Roadmap, Medicine Degree Curriculum, Project-Based Learning, Experience in implementation PBL in the scientific method frame.