ABSTRACT
There are many medical examples of problem cases used in PBL from as early as the early 1970s (Neufeld and Barrows, 1974). The following example asks the learner to explain the phenomena described in terms of underlying processes. Cold Hands (David et al, 1999):
Johnny Green, seven-years-old, is playing bare-handed in the snow on a beautiful clear winter day. After a while, he notices that his hands have become quite cold and look pale. By the time Johnny arrives home crying,
his hands have turned blue. ‘My hands are so cold’, he tells his mother. Despite Johnny’s loud protest, his mother holds his hands under the cold water tap.‘Feeling better?’ she asks after a while.‘They are glowing’, Johnny replies.‘It feels like a million needles pricking’.
