The Benefits and Limits of Case-Based Learning (CBL): A Concise Review

Although medical care has become much more sophisticated over the past century, little has changed in terms of medical education methodologies. Currently, traditional clinical education mostly depends on a single modality, i.e., the lecture-based learning (LBL) teaching technique, where students listen while their teacher lectures. To compensate for the drawbacks of the LBL teaching mode, medical teaching reform has established a range of teaching modes: Problem-Based Learning (PBL), Case-Based Learning (CBL), and Team-Based Learning (TBL). The most employed of which are Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and Case-Based Learning (CBL), both were promoted and used in medical schools in the United States, Europe, Britain, and other countries. Human cases are utilized as a teaching technique in several medical professions to help relate theory to practice and impart relevance through case-based learning. CBL is the term used to describe the use of clinical cases as tools for learning. Currently, CBL is applied extensively in a variety of healthcare settings, including medicine, dentistry, child development, allied health, nursing, occupational therapy, and other allied health fields. In this review, we explore the advantages and disadvantages of CBL.