Is problem-based learning an ideal format for developing ethical decision skills?

Ethical decision making is a complex process, which involves the interaction of knowledge, skills, and attitude. To enhance the teaching and learning on ethics reasoning, multiple teaching strategies have to be applied. A medical ethical reasoning (MER) model served as a framework of the development of ethics reasoning and their suggested instructional strategies. Problem-based learning (PBL), being used to facilitate students' critical thinking, self-directed learning, collaboration, and communication skills, has been considered effective on ethics education, especially when incorporated with experiential experience. Unlike lecturing that mainly disseminates knowledge and activates the left brain, PBL encourages “whole-brain” learning. However, PBL has several disadvantages, such as its inefficiency, lack of adequately trained preceptors, and the in-depth, silo learning within a relatively small number of cases. Because each school tends to utilize PBL in different ways, either the curriculum designer or the learning strategy, it is important to maximize the advantages of a PBL session, PBL then becomes an ideal format for refining students' ethical decisions and behaviors.