Problem-Based Learning clinical trials

Using 'Guided-Discovery-Learning' to Optimize and Maximize Transfer of Surgical Simulation

The study is a randomized experimental study comparing two forms of learning; guided-discovery-learning and traditional instructional learning. Recruiting sixty-four participants, the investigators plan on comparing these two groups through a procedural skill in the form of suturing. In the case of guided-discovery-learning, the group will be allowed a discovery phase before instruction. In contrast, the control group will receive traditional instruction-lead-learning, in which a teacher teaches the participants a skill, and afterwards the participants practice it. After the teaching session, both groups will undertake a post-test of skill-level. A week later both groups will undertake a test for the execution of the learned suturing skill to a more complex version of the original task (Near-transfer). They will also undergo a test for the ability to transfer their learning to a new skill (i.e. preparation for future learning), in this case a new suture (Far-transfer). By filming these tests and having a blinded expert rater score them, the investigators will be able to get a measurement of attained transfer of skill-level throughout the procedures. The investigators hypothesis is that, the participants in the Guided-discovery-group will have an equal score to that of the traditional-learning group in the ability to obtain a skill and transfer it to a more complex version. Furthermore, the investigators hypothesize that the Guided-discovery-group will score better than the traditional-learning group in the case of transferring the procedural knowledge to learning a new skill. As well as testing the efficacy of guided-discovery-learning on a procedural skill, the investigators wish to investigate how and why it works. By filming a subset of participants in each group, as well as using questionnaires, and focus-group interviews the investigators will explore how participants interact in this different learning-environment compared to the traditional instructional learning-environment.