Small groups and problem-based learning: are we singing from the same hymn sheet?

Recently, Bordage (2002) commented that there is a need for better ways of looking at how teaching and learning work in the PBL approach before it is banished to the wilderness of other educational innovations. The premise of this paper is that better ways of looking at how PBL works are dependent on better ways of understanding PBL. The recent exchange of views in the literature about the value of the small-group learning environment in PBL suggests that there is a variety of perspectives on the role and purpose of the small group. The debaters will have difficulty settling their differences or even understanding each other's point of view if they are not 'singing from the same hymn sheet'. In pursuit of clarifying the issue and contributing to an enhanced understanding of PBL, this paper critiques published views of the small-group learning environment against a way of looking at PBL as a whole approach to learning medicine.