Traditional teaching methods which require teachers to play an active
role in the class are sometimes criticized as "spoon-feeding" as they discourage
students' independent thinking and innovation.
In the territory, most of the curriculum continues to be directed towards memorizing facts and gaining technical skills without or with little concern for understanding or reasoning.
Going in the opposite direction is a new teaching method called Problem-Based Learning, PBL for short.
In the University of Hong Kong, the Faculty of Dentistry and the Department of Speech & Hearing changed their instruction mode into all PBL tutorials last year, while the Department of Medicine and the Department of Nursing have just changed parts of their courses into PBL classes and some lectures are still preserved.
As a curriculum development and instructional system, PBL simultaneously develops both problem solving strategies and disciplinary knowledge bases and skills by placing students in the active role of problem-solvers.
Students are confronted with an ill-structured problem that mirrors real-world problems.
Students work through a series of problems in a group of eight to ten while the tutors only perform the role of facilitators or guides rather than as teachers.
PBL class tutors will develop problems, which emphasize and match to the curriculum, long before students discover it.
Unlike standard classes, learning objectives are not stated up front. Students are required to generate the learning issues or objectives based on their analysis of the problems.
"Definitely, PBL provides a chance for students to apply theories, which they've learnt in lectures, in 'real' situations," said Dr. Cheung Yeung Hung, professor of the Department of Community Medicine and Unit for Behavioral Sciences of the University of Hong Kong. He has also been a tutor for PBL classes for three years.
"This teaching method allows students to take an active role in learning which helps them to think critically," Dr. Cheung added. "It can actually help them to have a deeper recognition of the subjects they are learning."
According to Dr. Wong Tak Ming, professor of the Department of Physiology of the University of Hong Kong, the true value of learning, that is, "learning how to learn", is totally absent in traditional lectures. However, this value can actually be embodied in PBL teaching mode.
However, as a planner of PBL in the Department of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong, Dr. Wong also admitted that PBL may also have some weaknesses when compared with traditional lectures.
"Lectures may save time and provide vital short-cuts to learning, " he said. "It is a big advantage in the short run."
Also, for students who are used to the traditional "talk and chalk" format in the Hong Kong education system, PBL is very difficult to adapt to in the beginning.
Mary, who requested her surname to be withheld, is a Year 1 Dentistry student of the University of Hong Kong. She feels that it is quite tough for her to cope with the purely PBL teaching mode in her department.
"I'm really confused about what I am going to learn as no guideline is given," said she, " I don't know how much information I need to prepare for the classes.
"I know the objective of PBL tutorials is good but I still want to have some lecture-based classes, just like the Department of Medicine."
On the other hand, the Faculty of Medicine of The Chinese University of Hong Kong has not yet followed the trend.
"It is hard to say which kind of teaching approach the Medicine Department of CUHK will adopt because we are still in discussion," said Prof. Fok Tai Fai of the faculty.
"We may probably not just change all the lectures to PBL classes, but we won't deny the possibility that we may use the ideas of PBL in our discussion.
"We will take HKU's experience as a reference," added Prof. Fok.
