Conduct well-designed long-term randomized controlled trials of PBL in oral radiology¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 4 claims (4 for) · 1 study (1 quant-synthesis), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

Because the included interventions were mainly short-term and the review found no long-term evidence on effectiveness, the authors recommend that future research use well-designed long-term randomized controlled trials to establish whether PBL methods are superior to traditional teaching in oral radiology among dental students. They also note subgroup and sensitivity analyses could not be performed due to the small number of studies under similar outcomes.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Long-term follow-up designs; larger samples, since small sample sizes decreased the power of the included studies

Constraints¶

• Current evidence base is limited by clinical heterogeneity, small samples, and students being unused to the new methods, which influenced satisfaction levels

Target Learners¶

• undergraduate and postgraduate dental students

Target Learning Goals¶

• radiographic interpretation skills
• knowledge scores
• satisfaction levels

Claims¶

• The review rejects the null hypothesis that PBL and traditional teaching do not differ in improving radiographic interpretation skills [+W]
• PBL methods produce significantly better knowledge scores than traditional teaching among dental students (pooled MD 4.15) [+W]
• PBL methods produce significantly better radiographic interpretation skills than traditional teaching among dental students (pooled MD 0.54) [+W]
• Student satisfaction favours traditional teaching over PBL methods (pooled MD -0.14), conflicting with the skills and knowledge findings [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Future active-learning research should use randomised controlled designs with larger samples and standardised outcome measures
• Rigorously compare PBL with traditional methods before broad PGME implementation, using larger samples, controls, and follow-up

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Luke Alexander Maniangat, Mathew Simy, Kuriadom Sam Thomas, George Jeny Mary, Karobari Mohmed Isaqali, Marya Anand, Pawar Ajinkya Mansing. (2021). Effectiveness of Problem-Based Learning versus Traditional Teaching Methods in Improving Acquisition of Radiographic Interpretation Skills among Dental Students—A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. BioMed Research International. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/9630285