Before the introduction of PBL, students spent the first two years of medical school primarily in lecture halls. Professors talked, students wrote down what they said and learning was accomplished through rote memorization. Under the new curriculum, faculty members still lecture. But they also serve as PBL tutors. They are trained to take a back seat and let the students teach themselves.
Tutors receive cases about a week before students during special review sessions.
These sessions, designed to highlight information critical to each case, feature presentations by faculty members familiar with case topics. For example, one week's case involved a woman with gastrointestinal problems. A physician walked the tutors through the case, pointed out important symptoms, explained significant test findings and suggested good questions for the tutors to ask. She admits she often asks students questions about the tests and procedures they recommend - not because it's suggested by her colleagues but because she's really interested in the answer. Like Phillips, many of the nonphysician tutors perform extra research to help them understand cases and stay a step ahead of their students.