Social constructs of curricular change.

The adoption of problem-based approaches to teaching and learning in dental and medical education requires educators to consider a significantly different role and responsibilities as teacher from what they have experienced previously. This qualitative study explored how some educators experienced and interpreted changes in the newly merged dental and medical curriculum at the University of British Columbia. Our findings present how educators explained and dealt with change. In-depth interviews provided considerable insight into factors influencing the resistance or acceptance to change. The educators' beliefs about teaching and learning and their understanding of the development and implementation process of change mediated these factors. Findings from this study should help administrators, faculty developers, and educators themselves to understand better how curricular change is experienced and to plan effective and appropriate faculty development.