by Dr Pandula Siribaddana

Created on: July 20, 2010   Last Updated: July 22, 2010

Task Based Learning or TBL is different to a PBL in that the learning would be centering on a real task that is to be carried out by an individual at a place where the students are expected to function following their training.

Thus, in a medical education setting, the tasks can be many and will include encounters with patients at a clinical setting or performing a procedure in the same. In any of these events, the students are expected to learn not only the task but also the concepts and the mechanisms which are underlying the task at hand (Harden 2000).

Why Task Based Learning?

The necessity to look at TBL as an alternative to PBL in medical education was derived from the fact that research regarding PBL’s in the clinical years are lacking and that the time scheduling in a PBL based curriculum would be rather difficult in the circumstances that the students are occupied in a clinical learning sessions during the week days.

At the same time, such problems in scheduling the PBLs accordingly would lead to poor linkage between theory and practice as well (Harden 2000).

How to select the tasks?

When considering what tasks would be useful in undergraduate medical education, the Dundee educationists and clinical experts have come up with the following criteria. As such, an appropriate task would be:

A task which is important to a doctor's practice

A task that could be encountered by a student frequently and sometimes in more than one attachment.

A task which would help in developing generic skills apart from its usefulness to develop clinical skills and for reviewing basic sciences learning.

How to integrate ‘Task Based Learning’ to a curriculum?

According to the Dundee spiral curriculum, the integration of TBLs in the clinical attachments would be done as the ‘phase III’ in which the responsibility towards integration is given to the students rather than being controlled by the teachers. In ‘phase I’ and ‘phase II’ the students will be taught in an integrated manner by the teachers based on a system-based approach. According to Harden et al, the integration would be reflected in PBLs, clinical teaching, small group discussions and in other practical work in each of the allocated weeks for a particular system.

The teaching and learning will be further supported in the ‘phase III’ with the introduction of a Task Based Learning guide. The guide is said to provide the students with the necessary tasks to be completed and the learning issues and opportunities for each of these tasks. At the same time, it will illustrate the potential contribution by other resources in the University such as libraries, computer labs…etc.

Another important aspect in the integration would be the assessment of these students which will also look at the students ability to integrate what was learnt rather than factual recall. The assessments can include methods such as OSCE, portfolios as well as written exams (Harden 2000).

Reference:

Harden, RM,  Crosby, J, Davis, MH, Howie, PW, Struthers, AD 2000, ‘Task-based learning: the answer to integration and problem-based learning in the clinical years’, Medical Education, Vol. 34, pp. 391 – 397.

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