Students' use of time in a problem-based learning surgery clerkship

In a 12-week third-year surgery clerkship, students participated in either problem-based learning (PBL) or Socratic instruction (SI) sessions as the educational method. All other components of the clerkship were made as similar as possible. Students were allowed maximum unscheduled time for obtaining, exploring, and reflecting on medical information. During one week, students Kept a log of the time spent in 13 activities. Significant group differences existed on seven of the 13 variables. The SI students spent significantly more time in teaching sessions, waiting, in the operating room and in patient care. The PBL group spent more time on other clerkship activities, reading and personal time. The seven variables in the discriminant function model could correctly classify 94% and 89% of the SI and PBL groups, respectively. Previous studies of the effect of PBL on the clinical reasoning process use data that do not allow unequivocal conclusions. This study demonstrates a change in students' behaviour documented by increased use of time for self-study.