Correlation between group discussion and examination result in Problem Based Learning

Background: Problem-based Learning (PBL) is one method used in conducting a competence-based curriculum. Group discussion plays an important role in PBL, and students have the opportunity of obtaining more information to meet their learning objectives and improve their knowledge. The aim of this research was to study the correlation between group discussion results and the final score of the theoretical examination.

Method: Second-year medical students Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia (n=214, 85 males and 127 females), who took the Cardiovascular module completely were included in this study. Group discussion and summative test scores were collected and analyzed using SPSS program version 10.

Results and Discussion: The correlation between scores obtained in the group discussion and theoretical test was significant, with Pearson Correlation = 0.218, significant at 0.01 level (2- tailed).

Conclusion: There was a significant correlation between group discussion scores and theoretical test scores.