The intensive process of university changes inevitably brings about alterations in the teaching culture at universities.

As a result of changes in the professional activity of healthcare specialists, problem-solving in the field of psychological and social health is increasingly more commonly emphasized along the therapeutic functions. Thus, a significant part of healthcare specialists’ professional activity consists of problem situations whose solution requires more than competence oriented towards the biomedical field alone – psychosocial, management, and pedagogical competence here becomes highly important (Stutsky, 1995).

The changing attitude towards a physician’s profession brings about changes in physicians’ professional education and training and continuous qualification improvement. For this reason, the priority fields in the reformation of Lithuanian healthcare system are not only changes in physicians’ activity, but also their professional education and training, as well as updating and improvement of the curriculum of that training (Kirikova, Šveikauskas, Leonas,  2008). 

The implementation of the main principles of problem-based learning in the preclinical studies of medicine at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences is a challenge to the traditional system of studies (Šveikauskas, 2008). For this reason, special attention should be paid to the assessment of the process of problem-based learning in order to identify the advantages and the shortcomings of this process. 

In the modern higher education institution where the traditional teaching paradigm is being replaced by the learning paradigm, the students’ opinion is of special importance in order to reveal major problems in learning, and to plan possibilities for a better organization of the process of professional education and training.

Research question:

How do the graduates evaluate the possibilities for the development of competences in the changing culture of learning?

Objective: to evaluate the graduates’ attitude towards studies with respect to the development of competences.

Purpose:

1. To discuss the features of the changing culture of learning.

2. To reveal and compare the peculiarities of the development of competences in the context of the changing culture of learning at the LUHS (the graduates’ attitude).

Conceptual or theoretical framework

The study was based on theoretical positions emphasizing changes in professional education and training, the learning paradigm, and the strategy of problem-based learning (Barman, Jaafar, Rahim, 2007; Beachey, 2007; Conway, Medville Williams, 1999; Foldevi, 1995; Jucevičienė, Gudaitytė, Karenauskaitė, Lipinskienė, Stanikūnienė, Tautkevičienė, 2010; Kirikova, Šveikauskas, Leonas, 2008; Sefton, 1997; Laužackas, 2005; Šveikauskas, 2005; Šveikauskas, Kirikova, Leonas, 2008; Wood, 2003; Woods,1994).

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