Problem Based Learning.

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Problem Based Learning
MEC
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Contents

• Meaning of Pedagogy.
• Why Problem Based Learning.
• Principles of Problem Based Learning.
• Role of a Tutor.
• Merits and Demerits.
• Implementation Challenges.
• ePBL and P5BL

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Pedagogy

• Study of theory and practice of learning, and how
  this process influences, and is influenced by,
  the social, political and psychological
  development of learners.
• Study of how knowledge and skills are imparted in
  an educational context.
• Considers interactions that take place during
  learning.
• Often described as the act of teaching.

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Problem Based Learning

• Pioneered by Barrows and Tamblyn at the medical
  school program at McMaster University, Hamilton
  in 1960s for medical education.
• Broadened for other programs of learning.
• A student-centered pedagogy.
• Students learn through the experience of solving
  an open-ended problem found in trigger material.
• Does not focus on problem solving with a defined
  solution.

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Problem Based Learning

• Allows for the development of other desirable
  skills and attributes.
• Includes knowledge acquisition, enhanced group
  collaboration and communication.
• Allows for learners to develop skills used for
  future practice.
• Enhances critical appraisal, literature retrieval
  and encourages ongoing learning within a team
  environment.

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Problem Based Learning

• PBL tutorial process involves working in small
  groups of learners.
• Each student takes on a role within the group
  that may be formal or informal and the role often
  alternates.
• Focused on the student's reflection and reasoning
  to construct their own learning.

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Problem Based Learning

• Maastricht seven-jump process involves clarifying
  terms, defining problem(s), brainstorming,
  structuring and hypothesis, learning objectives,
  independent study and synthesis.
• Involves identifying what they already know, what
  they need to know, and how and where to access
  new information that may lead to the resolution
  of the problem.

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Problem Based Learning

• Student-focused, allows for active learning and
  better understanding and retention of knowledge.
• Helps to develop life skills applicable to many
  domains.
• Used to enhance content knowledge.
• Simultaneously fosters the development of
  communication, problem-solving, critical
  thinking, collaboration, and self-directed
  learning skills.

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Problem Based Learning

• May position students to optimally function using
  real-world experiences.
• Harnesses collective group intellect.
• Differing perspectives may offer different
  perceptions and solutions to a problem.

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Principles of Problem Based Learning

• Wood defines problem-based learning as a process
  that uses identified issues within a scenario to
  increase knowledge and understanding.
• Principles of PBL include
• 1. Learner-driven self-identified goals and
• outcomes.
• 2. Students do independent, self-directed
• study before returning to larger group.

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Principles of Problem Based Learning

• 3. Learning in small groups of 810 people,
• with a tutor to facilitate discussion.
• 4. Trigger materials such as paper-based
• clinical scenarios, lab data, photographs,
• articles or videos or patients (real or
• simulated) can be used.
• 5. Maastricht 7-jump process helps to
• guide the PBL tutorial process.

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Principles of Problem Based Learning

• 6. Based on principles of adult learning
• theory.
• 7. All members of the group have a role to
• play.
• 8. Allows for knowledge acquisition
• through combined work and intellect.
• 9. Enhances teamwork, communication,
• and problem-solving skills.

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Principles of Problem Based Learning

• 10. Encourages independent
• responsibility for shared learning - all
• essential skills for future practice.
• 11. Anyone can do it as long as it is right
• depending on the given causes and
• scenario.

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Role of a Tutor

• Tutor to facilitate learning by supporting,
  guiding, and monitoring the learning process.
• Tutor to build students' confidence when
  addressing problems, while expanding the
  understanding.
• Process based on constructivism.
• A paradigm shift from traditional teaching and
  learning philosophy which is more often lecture
  based.

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Role of a Tutor

• Constructs for teaching PBL different from
  traditional classroom or lecture teaching.
• Require more preparation time and resources to
  support small group learning.
• PBL to facilitate students to learn and
  understand complex concepts and theories such as
  engineering design problems.

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Advantages
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Enhances Student-centred Learning

• Active student involvement.
• Fosters active learning, and also retention and
  development of lifelong learning skills.
• Encourages self-directed learning by confronting
  students with problems and stimulates the
  development of deep learning.

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Upholds Lifelong Learning

• Emphasis on lifelong learning.
• Better long term knowledge retention.
• Developing student potential to determine their
  own goals, locate appropriate resources for
  learning and assume responsibility for what they
  need to know.

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Prominence on Comprehension not Facts

• Focuses on engaging students in finding solutions
  to real life situations and pertinent
  contextualized problems.
• Discussion forums and collaborative research
  replace lecturing.

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In-depth Learning and Constructivist Approach

• Fosters learning by involving students with
  interactive learning materials.
• Relate the concepts with everyday activities and
  enhance knowledge and understanding.
• Activate student prior knowledge.
• Builds on existing conceptual knowledge
  frameworks.

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Augments Self-learning

• Students take more interest and responsibility
  for learning.
• Students themselves resolve the problems that are
  given to them.
• Students to conduct literature review.
• Equips students with more proficiency in seeking
  resources in comparison to the students of
  traditional learning methods.

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Better Understanding and Adeptness

• More significance to meaning, applicability and
  relevance to the learning materials.
• Better understanding of the subjects learnt.
• Students given more challenging and significant
  problems to make them more proficient.
• Real life contexts and problems makes learning
  more profound and lasting.

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Better Understanding and Adeptness

• Permits application of classroom learnt skills
  and knowledge to work.
• Permits visualizing what it will be like applying
  that knowledge and expertise on the field of work
  or profession

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Reinforces Interpersonal Skills and Teamwork

• Teamwork and collaborative learning.
• Teams or groups resolve relevant problems in
  collaboration.
• Fosters leadership qualities, student interaction
  and teamwork.
• Reinforces interpersonal skills like peer
  evaluation, working with group dynamic.
• Students to learn to make decision by consensus
  and give constructive feed back to the team
  member.

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Self-motivation

• Fosters self motivation.
• More flexible and interesting.
• Increase in the percentage of attendance of
  students and their attitude towards learning.
• Enjoyable, less threatening independent learning.
• Self-motivation to pursue learning even after
  they leave the institution.

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Enriching Teacher-Student Relationship

• Problem-based learning more nurturing,
  significant curriculum and beneficial to the
  cognitive growth of the student.
• Students self-motivated, good teamwork,
  self-directed learning etc.
• Improved relationships.

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Higher Level of Learning

• Student scores found higher than the students in
  traditional courses due to improved learning
  competencies, problem solving, self-assessment
  techniques, data gathering, behavioral science
  etc.
• Students found better at activating prior
  knowledge, learn in a context resembling their
  future context and elaborate more on the
  information presented.
• Better understanding/retention of knowledge.

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Drawbacks
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Drawbacks

• Resource-intensive, requires more physical space
  and more accessible computer resources to
  accommodate simultaneous smaller group learning.
• More staff to take an active role in facilitation
  and group-led discussion.
• Some educators find PBL facilitation difficult
  and frustrating.

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Drawbacks

• Uncertainty with information overload.
• Unable to determine how much study is required
  and the relevance of information available.
• Lack of access to teachers who serve as the
  inspirational role models that traditional
  curriculum offers.

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Time Consuming

• Instructors to invest more time to assess student
  learning and prepare course materials.
• Dedicating more time to presenting new research
  and individual student findings regarding each
  specific topic.
• Disorganised nature of brain-storming.

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Traditional Assumptions of Students

• Students might have spent their previous years of
  education assuming teacher as the main
  disseminator of knowledge.
• Lack of ability to simply wonder about something
  in the initial years of problem-based learning.

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Role of the Instructor

• Difficulty in altering past habits.
• Instructors to change their traditional teaching
  methodologies to incorporate problem-based
  learning.
• Instructors to question student knowledge,
  beliefs, give only hints to correct their
  mistakes and guide the students in their research.

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Evaluation

• Instructors to adapt new assessment methods to
  evaluate the student achievement.
• Instructors to incorporate written examinations
  with modified essay questions, practical
  examinations, peer and self assessments etc.
• Equivocal gender impacts when compared to lecture
  based learning.

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Cognitive Load

• Active problem solving early in the learning
  process less effective instructional strategy
  than studying worked examples.
• Difficult for learners to process a large amount
  of information in a short time.
• Active problem solving is useful as learners
  become more competent.

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Cognitive Load

• Other forms of learning early in the learning
  process (worked example, goal free problems, etc.
• Worked example early, and then a gradual
  introduction of problems to be solved.
• Gradual fading of guidance helps learners to
  slowly transit from studying examples to solving
  problems.

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Implementation Challenges

• Prepare faculty for change.
• Establish a new curriculum committee and working
  group.
• Designing the new PBL curriculum and defining
  educational outcomes.
• Seeking advice from experts in PBL.
• Planning, Organizing and Managing.
• Training PBL facilitators and defining the
  objectives of a facilitator.

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Implementation Challenges

• Introducing students to the PBL Program.
• Using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning
  to support the delivery of the PBL program.
• Changing the assessment to suit the PBL
  curriculum.
• Encouraging stakeholder feedback.
• Managing learning resources and facilities that
  support self-directed learning.
• Continuing evaluation and making changes.

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Scaffolding

• Breaking up the learning into chunks and
  providing a tool, or structure, with each chunk.
• Preview the text and discuss key vocabulary, or
  chunk the text and then read and discuss as you
  go.

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Constructivism

• PBL a constructivist approach to instruction.
• Emphasis on collaborative and self-directed
  learning.
• Students considered to be active agents who
  engage in social knowledge construction.
• Supported by tutor facilitation.
• Instructor to guide and challenge learning
  process than strictly providing knowledge.

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Cognitive Constructivist Process of PBL

• Learners presented with a problem and through
  discussion within their group, activate their
  prior knowledge.
• Within the group, students develop possible
  theories or hypotheses to explain the problem.
• Together students identify learning issues to be
  researched.
• Students construct a shared primary model to
  explain the problem at hand.

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Cognitive Constructivist Process of PBL

• Facilitators provide scaffolding, which is a
  framework on which students can construct
  knowledge relating to the problem.
• After the initial teamwork, students work
  independently in self-directed study to research
  the identified issues.
• The students re-group to discuss their findings
  and refine their initial explanations based on
  what they learned.

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ePBL

• Computer-supported PBL, an electronic version of
  traditional face-to-face paper-based PBL.
• More cost-effective online group activity.
• Participants may be located distant apart.
• Opportunity to embed audios and videos, related
  to the skills within the case scenarios.
• Improving learning environment to enhance student
  engagement in learning process.

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P5BL Approach

• People, Problem, Process, Product and Project
  Based Learning.
• Pioneered by Stanford Professor Fruchter.
• Introduced in Stanford School of Engineering in
  1993 to offer graduate students to implement
  skills in a cross-disciplinary, collaborative and
  geographically distributed teamwork experience.

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P5BL Approach

• An inter-disciplinary integrated development of
  deliverables, to improve the overall competency
  and skills of the students.
• P5BL mentoring a structured activity that
  involves situated and constructivist learning
  strategies to foster the culture of practice.

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P5BL Approach

• Encourages teaching and learning teamwork in the
  information age.
• Facilitates team interaction with professors,
  industry mentors and owners.
• Professors, industry mentors and owners to
  provide necessary guidance and support for the
  learning activity.

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P5BL Approach

• Familiarizes students with real world problems
  and improves their confidence in finding
  solutions.
• Improves networking skills, helps establish
  rapport with key persons of the industry.
• Help learn the value of teamwork.
• Creates an appreciation of interdisciplinary
  approach.

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P5BL Approach

• Scaffolding to be done by the mentors to ensure
  that students are successful in attaining the
  project goals to solve the problem.
• Open and constructive communications to achieve
  mile stones.
• To foster the culture of practice that would
  extend beyond the university campus to real life.

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Comments

• PBL encourages learning in the academic world
  through the processes of inquiring and discovery.
  It is argued as a learning method that can
  promote development of critical thinking skills.
  In PBL learning, students learn how to analyze a
  problem, identify relevant facts and generate
  hypotheses, identify necessary information/
  knowledge for solving the problem and make
  reasonable judgments about solving the problem.

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Thank You