Puzzle Method – The Option to Learn within the Team

Contemporary medicine is experiencing a high volume of information, which often exceeds the normal capacity of reception and processing. Time management is important in selection and retention of the volume and diversity of information, which raise the challenge to identify and experiment with new ways to learn. In this paper we aim to evaluate the effectiveness of the jigsaw puzzle method for teams applied in the clinical simulation module (human patient simulator and digestive endoscopy simulators). The target group consisted of medical students (IIIrd, IVth, and Vth) organized in mixed groups of six students coming from different years of study. Clinical scenarios selected from the library of the simulators were divided into sub-themes (puzzle pieces) distributed to students according to the type of professional and transversal skills characteristic to the year of study. Working groups have retraced the selected clinical scenarios by independent reports. We used the self-evaluation forms in the software of the equipment for checking the specific indicators of learning objectives. Processing and interpretation of information obtained from the results revealed how the documentation and presentation of independent research results to others, the communication and cooperation tasks and the transfer of knowledge between group members have contributed to cooperative learning. In conclusion, students thought that the essential element for the puzzle method is the interdependence between group members, which stimulates them to cooperate in order to achieve the goals.