Objective:

to characterize the explanatory models of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in health sciences students and to identify the changes that occur in them when implementing problem-based learning (PBL).

Frame of reference:

the new teaching-learning trends in science benefit the construction of participatory activities that propitiate scientific reasoning, argumentation and the appropriation of specific concepts, aimed at understanding the rationality of science and its application in the everyday context.

Design:

descriptive study with comprehensive qualitative analysis in undergraduate third-semester students of the Faculty of Health of the Technological University of Pereira.

Interventions:

the students' explanatory models about the IAM concept were initially characterized, classifying them according to four categories: common sense (CS), anatomical / tissue (AT), cellular / functional (CF), biological / metabolic (BM). In the second time, the PBL was implemented as a didactic strategy for the intervention of explanatory models. Then a focus group was formed with which a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the change in the explanatory models was carried out.

Results:

in the first phase of the analysis it was found that the majority of students were in the CS model; later, a progression to the higher models was observed, being the AT the most frequent. Finally, it is possible to identify that the students demonstrate having elements of several models.

Conclusions:

a substantial change in the initial explanatory models was evidenced, thus allowing to link the PBL as a didactic strategy to promote conceptual change.