Perception and Attitude of Undergraduate Medical Students and Lecturers towards the Problem-Based Learning of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Curriculum: An Inter-University Study

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centred approach by using clinical scenario to achieve the learning objectives. This study aimed to determine the perception and attitude of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Maldives National University (MNU) undergraduate medical students and lecturers towards PBL in UKM curriculum. A cross-sectional study was conducted by using online self-administered questionnaires based on a five-point Likert scale. The questionnaires were validated with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.907 and 0.703 for students and lecturers respectively. A total of 179 UKM and 61 MNU students, and 67 UKM lecturers and 8 MNU lecturers were recruited in the study. 86.69% and 69.87% of students had positive scores in perception and attitude assessment respectively. However, no significant differences were observed in median and mean scores for perception and attitude between gender, university, year of study, and cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of the respondents. For lecturers, 63.62% and 85.83% had positive scores for perception and attitude respectively. The attitude score among MNU lecturers was significantly higher than UKM lecturers. In conclusion, both students and lecturers showed positive perceptions and attitudes towards PBL of the UKM curriculum which gave benefits and contribution in enhancing knowledge, learning and soft skills.