9 1995 KluwerAcademic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. The relationship between student-generated learning issues and self-study in problem-based l earn ing

Abstract. A major assumption of problem-based learning (PBL) is that learning issues, gen-erated by students while discussing a problem, are used as guides for self-directed learning activities. This assumption, though basic to PBL, has never been tested. At the University of Limburg, the Netherlands, two procedures have been developed that reflect he extent o which students are able to identify important learning issues given a particular problem, and whether subsequent, independent, learning corresponds with these learning issues. The focus of the present article will be on the relationship between the two. We have explored to what extent student-generated learning issues are a major factor influencing the nature of students' self-study, or whether other factors may be involved in decisions on what to study and how much time to spend on topics selected. First, the production of learning issues was studied and represented as the percentage of overlap between leaming issues raised by students and pre-set faculty objectives for each problem. The second procedure consisted of the administration f a 'Topic Checklist ' (TOC) which purports to measure students ' actual self-directed learning activities. The TOC consists of a list of topics pecifying the intended course content. Students were asked to indicate on a five-point Likert scale how much time they had spent studying eac