www.ijird.com August, 2018 Vol 7 Issue 8 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INNOVATIVE RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT DOI No. : 10.24940/ ijird/ 2018/ v7/ i8/ JUL18067 Page 87 Problem Based Learning for Fourth Year Medical Students in Fayoum Governorate, Egypt 1. Introduction Problem-based learning (PBL) is a widely used method that uses cases (problems), to push learning and engage student’s discussion in small groups. Students in PBL tutorials learn cooperatively by integrating knowledge, solving and explaining the problem, and identifying their learning needs. During the learning process, student’s interaction and group function are central to the different phases of the PBL tutorials (1) . Therefore, PBL tutorials aim at retrievingtraditional teacher–student interactions towards more active student–student interactions. Facilitators (tutors) in PBL coach students with suggestions for further study or explanations but do not necessarily allocate specific predetermined task activities (2–4) . Students’ interactions promote the critical thinking process and push students to explore deep learning. Therefore, deep learning is enforced when students become responsible for their own learning and use critical analyses effectively as part of their learning process (5) . However, PBL is a student centred oncoming to teaching and learning in which students are exposed to trigger learning materials based on ‘real life problems’ (6). Students work in small groups to explore and examine the issues that arise from the learning materials. Individual students address their own learning needs and are also tasked with examining some of the specific issues that arise. A formal review of progress takes place before the collated information is fed back to the group. This process of learning is active, self-directed and cyclical (7) .The involvement of the lecturer in this process is essentially that of facilitator. There are a whole series of benefits associated with PBL. These include the idea that PBL enhance deeper learning, in which there is genuine understanding of an issue as well as the reflective application of interpersonal skills and/ or knowledge (7) According to the Problem-based Learning Special Interest Group (2009), research into PBL occupies four main areas: curriculum design, facilitation, effectiveness of learning, and student experience, which is the most researched category. This report, however, suggests that the magnitude of this work is focussed on evaluating particular modules or units that use PBL rather than whole courses or programmes (8) ISSN 2278 – 0211 (Online) Marwa Ali Mwaheb Lecturer, Department of Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology, Fayoum University, Egypt Abstract: Background: Problem based learning (PBL) consider that the most significant development in education over the past five decades. It has been boosted by the curriculum of choice, and since its introduction in the 1960’s, has been vastly adopted by many medical and dental schools. Objectives: The aim of this research was to compare the development and recollection of knowledge in the medical sciences between students on the traditional and reformed undergraduate medical curricula, respectively. Methods: For each medical student has taken, The Progress Test Medizin (PTM), relative frequencies of correct answers were computed for basic sciences items only and for the whole curriculum. Frequencies were averaged and grouped by semester and curriculum. Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were performed at all measurement points with a Bonferroni-corrected p- value at the level of p < 0.005. Eta-squared (g2) was used to classify effect size. Results: The current study occurs on 80 fourth year medical students divided into two rounds. First round study by the traditional medical curriculum (lecture group) whiles the second round study by the reformed medical curriculum (problem learning group). The present study shows that there is statistically significant difference with p-value <0.05 between different topics among lecture teaching method with the lowest score given for identification topic and the highest core for death topic; which indicated that lecture methods not suits some topics as identification topic Conclusion: Proceed testing as a longitudinal method allows us to better understand the development of knowledge during formal undergraduate education. The main difference between traditional and problem-based medical education demonstrate to be induced by the high-stakes national examination undertaken in the traditional course. Keywords: Education, problem based learning, medical students