Problem Based Learning Studies in Turkey

PBL is one of the Constructivist approach methods which was implemented initially in medical schools and then spread out into different disciplines. With the introduction of PBL, many research studies in different subjects have been embarked upon such as the effectiveness of the application, the changing role of the students and facilitators, the functioning of the groups etc. Moreover, a variety of content analysis and meta-analysis has been reviewed to contribute to the future studies. This research was conducted to examine the implementation of PBL in Turkey. During the study, 64 peer-reviewed journals were reviewed and a total of 30 papers related with PBL have been analyzed. Moreover, 48 dissertations with regard to the PBL have been reached, the first article and the first dissertation being studied respectively in 1999 and 2002. These articles and dissertations were examined under eight topics namely: Grade level of the study, the study area, study type, study methods, sample number, data collection techniques, and reference numbers and types. According to the findings, PBL studies in Science and Social Science are preferred equally in Turkey although it has been cited in literature that there are more PBL studies in Medicine and Science. Furthermore, an equal amount of quantitative and qualitative studies are carried out and both experimental and literature review studies are adopted in PBL studies of Turkey. In spite of the difficulties in accumulating big groups in PBL studies, several studies with as many as more than 200 participants have been perpetueted in Turkey on PBL.