Biology education in the higher learning in Malaysia has undergone a transformation in the recent years. The full
lecture based sessions are now replaced with student centered teaching methodologies. This is in line with the recommendation from Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (2004) that is to teach enough factual knowledge and practical skills, and more importantly, to also encourage students to be inquiring, to critically appraise problems, evaluate and offer creative solutions as well as to develop in them a sense of professionalism and attitudes that are desirable for the Malaysian society. Teaching of Biology now focuses on development of knowledge, practical skills and generic skills. Thus it is important to find an approach that covers all these areas. Typical lecture-based instruction occurs exclusively in a full-class rather than the small group context; the
instructional method, by definition is prohibitive of small group interaction during class (Kelly et al. 2004; Turan, 2010 ). During the classroom sessions, the lecturer does most of the teaching and the students listen passively. This involves a one-way communication most of the time. The students are not actively involved in communicating with their lecturer and peers. PBL could be used as an alternative to teach Biology. PBL is a non-traditional method that encourages construction of knowledge and communication skills on the part of the learner. Over the years problem- based learning (PBL) has shown the potential of developing knowledge and generic skills. PBL has been adopted by many lecturers to teach Biology. PBL emphasizes transferable skills development alongside disciplinary content coverage and therefore, is one approach to satisfying the multiple demands now made of undergraduate education (Mitchell et al. 2010). Communication skills is an important element in PBL as lots of teamwork is involved. It involves peer interaction in order to find information and solution and is important during the writing and presentation process. Numerous researches have reported that PBL improves the communication skill of students (Riberio 2008; Lai 2007; Özdaml?, 2009).