Dr. Aidah A-Kaissi, Head of the Nursing and Midwifery Department at An-Najah, received funding from the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at the University to implement the Problem Based Learning Project (PBL) using modern methods in teaching and learning. These methods focus on the student who learns a particular subject in a context of complex and multi-faceted problems.

Dr. Al-Kaissi mentioned that the purpose of this project is to help the students develop knowledge, self education, effective cooperation skills, and self motivation in work groups through which they would determine what they need to know and what they already know; access to new information can lead to solving any problem, a method that encourages in-depth understanding of the material.

Through this strategy, education that is focused on discussion and learning is coordinated; this is a method that encourages independent learning. Through this the student involves himself in self-directed study in search of the required information. It also gives the student the chance to practice the treatment of confusion states and the identification of gaps in the context of the related clinical problems where the student can remember the theoretical material later on in the clinical preparation.

More than 80% of the medical schools around the world that uses the systemized problem identification method to teach students the real or virtual clinical cases.

Dr. Al-Kaissi added that among the objectives of the PBL is to help the students develop knowledge, flexibility and effectiveness to solve problems related to skills, self-education, effective cooperation skills and self motivation in work groups. She also said that the objectives of the PBL are much more than just acquiring problem-solving skills. This project is expected to affect the student and the different aspects of his/her educational experience, in addition to transferring what he/she has learned to new fields.

Participants in the project include Dr. Al-Kaissi as coordinator, Fatima Hirzallah, Samah Shtayyeh, Mahdiya Al-Koni, Najwa Subuh and Shorouq Qadous as supervisors of the student groups. The project is applied to the Critical Care Nursing course for the third year nursing students at An-Najah. Students were divided into six groups each of which contained 8-9 students. Each group is supervised by a teacher and a meeting is held for two hours per week over the course of the current semester.

Dr. Al-Kaissi thanked the University’s administration and the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, represented by its director Dr. Abdel Kareem Daraghmeh, for their support and cooperation to make this project a success.