Problem-Based Learning in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: A Perspective from Japan

Junko Iwatsuki; Takeshi Kondo; Noriyuki Takahashi; Hideki Takami; Hiroshi Nishigori; Itzel Bustos-Villalobos; Branko Aleksic; Hideki Kasuya; Nobutaro Ban; Tetsuya Yagi; Norbert Skokauskas

doi:10.2147/AMEP.S333958

Problem-Based Learning in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: A Perspective from Japan

Adv Med Educ Pract. 2021 Nov 16:12:1329-1335. doi: 10.2147/AMEP.S333958. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Junko Iwatsuki^{1

2}, Takeshi Kondo³, Noriyuki Takahashi^{3

4

5}, Hideki Takami³, Hiroshi Nishigori⁶, Itzel Bustos-Villalobos⁷, Branko Aleksic^{7

8}, Hideki Kasuya⁷, Nobutaro Ban⁹, Tetsuya Yagi¹⁰, Norbert Skokauskas^{11

12}

Affiliations

¹ International Collaboration Planning Center, Institute of International Education and Exchange, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan.
² Present Affiliation is Office for International Education and Exchange, Faculty and Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan.
³ Center for Postgraduate Clinical Training and Career Development, Nagoya University Hospital, Nagoya, Japan.
⁴ Department of General Medicine/Family & Community Medicine, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
⁵ Department of Education for Community-Oriented Medicine, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
⁶ Center for Medical Education, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
⁷ Department of International Medical Education, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
⁸ Department of Psychiatry, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
⁹ Medical Education Center, Aichi Medical University School of Medicine, Nagakute, Japan.
¹⁰ Department of Infectious Diseases, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
¹¹ Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare, Department of Mental Health, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
¹² Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, St. Olavs University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway.

Abstract

Purpose: Japanese higher education institutions have long been striving for the globalization of medical education. Nagoya University (NU) adopted PBL as a means of enhancing intercultural awareness in globalizing medical education by working with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, under the Trondheim NTNU-Nagoya (TroNa) partnership for mobility and internationalization of child and mental health studies. This study aims to assess students' attitudes towards PBL and to suggest future developments in this form of education by introducing common PBL scenarios experienced at NTNU and NU.

Methods: Two 90-minute PBL sessions were conducted at NU. Ten groups of medical students were formed, each consisting of up to 10 students, and students were asked to fill in a questionnaire developed to assess their understanding of, attitudes to and satisfaction with the classes. We investigated three different groups of questions on: NU medical students' general impressions of PBL; their impressions of PBL in child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP); and their impressions of PBL in specific case scenarios. Correlations between each of the questions from the three groups were evaluated using multivariate analysis.

Results: Overall, a majority of the NU medical students were satisfied with PBL, while a small number preferred traditional lecture-style learning (5%). More than half of the students agreed that PBL increased their understanding and interest in CAP (53%), although some male students felt that the amount of time spent was insufficient (20.3%). Correlations were seen for students who thought that PBL enhanced their understanding of and interest in CAP. Regarding case scenarios, most students (82.5%) agreed that PBL helped them to develop clinical problem-solving skills.

Conclusion: The study found an overall positive attitude towards PBL, PBL in CAP and the specific PBL case scenario presented.

Keywords: English medical education; child psychiatry; children and mental health; internationalization; problem-based learning.

Grants and funding

The TroNA Partnership for students and staff mobility and internationalization of child mental health studies is an UTFORSK project.