Introduction:

The qualifications required from a professor have implications for job placement, professional development and the quality of health human resource training.

Objective:

To determine a professor's expertise and whether there is empirical evidence that his or her background in problem-based learning (PBL) influences student learning.

Methods:

In this scoping review, published articles were searched for in the Medline, Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar, EBSCO and ScienceDirect databases. The search initially included articles published between 2015 and 2020; then, studies cited in these articles were included to increase the sample number. The assessment was performed independently by two researchers. A sheer number of eleven articles met the inclusion criteria. Data about the qualities of the PBL professor were extracted and analyzed.

Results:

Studies exploring the qualifications of the PBL professor are scarce, while there is no unified criterion on the training and experience required from them. The empirical evidence found is questionable and shows gaps in the understanding of this problem, although it suggests a professor with expertise in medicine and pedagogy as the best option.

Conclusions:

These findings represent a serious shortcoming of PBL. A possible solution is to integrate the teaching of pedagogy into medical curricula in order to have a greater number of professors with expertise in both medicine and teaching.

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