title: [Peculiarities of problem-based learning in medical education].
abstract: In most Western universities at the end of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st problem-based learning is treated as a new direction of didactics or as challenge to traditional study system. Some Western researchers name problem-based learning as the method which most corresponds to the goals of modern medical education. When implementing the system of problem-based learning into traditional study systems, the junction problems can be conditioned by work principles of teacher performing tutor's functions and a traditional one. Student-oriented teaching conditions the junction between traditional approach, which emphasizes student's dependence on a teacher as information source and modern one stressing student's freedom when choosing the values of education and responsibility for his/her learning. On integrating the content of various subjects, junction problems are conditioned by disappearance of classical borders between separate subjects. When emphasizing the solution of problems in study programs, transition from the teaching concentrated on separate subject studies to the studies based on systemic problem solution can cause junction problems. Realizing the study program content oriented to community, the junction can be conditioned by insufficient openness of university to society, as, first of all, one has to train not only students and teachers but also society for new interaction with university as an institution that realizes health study program. The objective of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of problem-based learning when realizing the aims of medical education.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Kaunas University of Medicine, Kaunas, Lithuania. vaclov@kmu.lt
authors.forename: Vaclovas
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sveikauskas
mesh_terms: D004501:Education, Medical; D006801:Humans; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D014495:Universities