LETTER TO THE EDITOR INNOVATIONS IN TEACHING & LEARNING: OUR EXPERIENCE

Innovations has been a part of medical education since Flexner’s report, although it has largely been confined to new medical schools & to small activities in a single course or clerck ships. Problem Based Learning is one such innovation which was developed by McMaster University in 1965. It was developed as an alternative to traditional or teacher led education of healthcare professionals. PBL as implemented in the health sciences is an educational method in which the focus of learning is small group tutorial in which students work through a health case scenario. The goals of health care scenarios are to provide a context for learning, to activate a prior knowledge, to motivate students. The theoretical basis of PBL is that the learning is enhanced by following conditions: stimulation of prior knowledge, learning in context to enhance retention & elaboration of knowledge through discussion. PBL in Physical therapy is widely implemented in McMaster University as a completely integrated problem based curriculum. Other universities worldwide also have reported to use PBL in physical therapy. But in India there is no published evidence regarding the adoption of PBL in physical therapy. Our Experience: The first author of this study underwent extensive training in a workshop on Problem Based Learning. After the workshop the process of development of health care scenario started. Few conditions ver