students to provide environmental health ser- vices to communities. • I also learned communication skills when it comes to group work, how to communi- cate with others. (P5) • I also learned to be responsible for doing my work and also analyzing skills. (P2) Loureiro et al. (2009) support this con- cept by explaining that there is a need for a workforce that is appropriately competent to e ectively perform core functions. The authors state that pedagogy is the means by which these competencies can be achieved. One study showed that PBL has a significant e ect on student problem-solving skills and scientific writing skills (Sari et al., 2021). Most importantly, students gained skills in engaging with communities, which is a core function of EHPs. • I feel like it helps us better to engage with communities, to understand the communi- ties, because most of the time we are only exposed to our own surroundings there- fore we have our own perceptions, so when we get to engage with the communities and see with problem-based approaches, we get to understand that not every community is the same like mine or I can’t address every community from my own perspective. I’m able to, before going to the community— let me analyze the situation, let me ask, let me find out and do my own research— come up with a solution that is suitable for that community. (P6) This engagement might be the most important contribution of such an educa- tional approach, as environmental health relies on the ability of the EHP to deliver interventions that are specific to a commu- nity. These interventions should be free of any predispositions or notions, which can be dicult to navigate (Meidert et al., 2023). EHPs have been found to display uncon- scious implicit biases, which can a ect the level of service they provide to communities. Theme 2: Group Work Versus Individual Learning in Problem-Based Approaches Students reported many negative feelings about group work, with the cons seemingly outweighing the pros. Students were asked if they thought PBL would be better as an indi- vidual assessment or as a group activity. • I think it would have been better if we did it as an individual assessment or at least
in pairs, so that each individual will be exposed to how to collect information on that particular section or subtopic. Because group work just does not work—not every- one participates. (P1) •I think working in pairs is also good because with just the two of us, we have to do the work, [rather] than the five of us and some won’t do the work. (P2, P3) • I would do it as an individual but also in a sense, as an individual you get to evaluate for yourself and solve the problem your- self. For example, we present and get to see how someone had a similar problem as you, how they assessed it, how they viewed it, and how they solved it. That’s how we can learn from each other. (P1) Two students disagreed, however, and said they felt that group work was the bet- ter option. • Group assessment is good because every- one shares their opinion about the topic, so we get more skills from other people. (P4) • Group work is good if everyone is partici- pating. (P5) Group work decreases the demand on stu- dents and shares the workload. Students noted this aspect for PBL, stating that it was less demanding because the workload was distrib- uted, making it easier to research and develop solutions for the problem. Despite the negative views of group work, it can yield many ben- efits. Group work builds collaborative skills (Le et al., 2017), communication and research skills (Chu et al., 2017), social skills, and accountability (Kokotsaki et al., 2016). Theme 3: Developing Environmental Health- Specific Problems Students appreciated the relevance of the PBL scenarios that encouraged them to draw on content from all modules in establishing the link between the profession and aca- demic theory. • In other modules, we did assignments that are not about environmental health at all. And other modules we did some assign- ments like case dockets, and we went to a court and heard about criminal cases which are not relevant to EH. (P5) • I think some of the modules lack to explain to us the association (like P5 said), that some assignments are not about environ- mental health. I think they should give us something that makes us to understand
what is it that is expected from us as an EHP. Like the case docket, what is our point of view? What are we supposed to get from doing the assignment? (P3) • Some people don’t know the role of an EHP, so if there is an issue that is similarly related to what an EHP is supposed to do, then they ask them. In that sense, it was good (problem-based approach) and it will help us in the future. (P6) • I also think the topics were more relevant to us as future EHPs because it gave us a deeper understanding of what is required from us as EHPs, and they also gave us skills of solving real-life problems. (P1) PBL could be particularly beneficial for teaching environmental health, as it achieves the outcomes required for the development of skills needed by future EHPs. The prob- lems allowed students to understand their role as EHPs in the di erent scenarios that were presented to them, which provided them with clarity about their professional identity. Cruess et al. (2019) believe that curricula should support students in the development of their professional identity and assist them as they progress toward becoming professionals. Students explained that they understood environmental health concepts better after engaging with the problem-based scenarios. • In a sense, it gave us insight into what is expected of us as future EHPs. (P6) • Some of us, when we started, we did not understand the course, but now there’s more understanding. (P5, P4) • I feel like the problem-solving approach is way better than handwritten assign- ments. (P1) Students also agreed that this approach could work with other modules, provided clarity was given about the association between the assignment and the module con- tent. It was clear that students found it chal- lenging to make the connection between some assessments and activities to the profession, which highlights the need for an approach such as PBL. This approach provides students with the opportunity to practically apply the content to a scenario and highlights the con- nection between the problem presented and the scope of practice. There were, however, challenges with the PBL approach. Students recommended that for the approach to work, prior expla-
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May 2025 • Journal of Environmental Health
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