How to promote learning Through Problem Based Learning

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How to promote learning Through Problem Based
Learning

• Prof. Dr Lorna Uden
• Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Technology.
• Staffordshire University
• The Octagon.
• Stafford ST18 0AD
• E-mail L.uden_at_staffs.ac.uk

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Published by IGI Global ltwww.igi-pub.comgt ISBN
1-59140-744-3 (Hardback) ISBN 1-5940-745-1 (Soft
cover) ISBN 1-59140-746-X (E-book).
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• First year experience and drop out
• 40 drop out is normal in USA
• Reason may be mismatch between students
  expectations and perception and reality of first
  year undergraduate experience
• Norman It is strange that we expect students to
  learn yet seldom teach them about learning. We
  expect them to solve problems yet seldom teach
  them problem solving.
• How to help students to learn ?
• By making learning fun and enjoyable!

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• Three issues
• Concern for students
• Making learning realistic
• Helping students learn.

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• Concern for students
• Take an interest in student
• Show student you care
• Student needs to know he/she can trust you
• Motivate the student
• Instil in student the desire to take ownership of
  his/her learning
• Be role model to student.

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• Making learning realistic
• Student should be told of the objectives and
  criteria of assessment
• Learning must be realistic
• Students should be actively involved in learning
  activities
• Students should have understanding of the
  learning process
• Create tools and activities under which students
  thinking can be revealed - a process that
  involves inquiry, dialogue and skill building.

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• Helping students to learn
• HIGHERORDER THINKING SKILLS
• Skills that can be applied across subject matter
  domains.
• Often referred to as generic skills.
• Tend to be more complex and take longer to
  acquire than domain-specific skills.
• Have a recall aspect in that it may entail
  remembering the sequence of several activities.
• Have an understanding aspect in that certain
  understandings are often necessary to transfer
  the skills to such diverse situations across
  subject matter domains.
• Have an application aspect in that one must learn
  to generalise the skills to various, previously
  un-encountered sets of inputs or conditions.

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• Hence, to learn to do higher-level thinking (e.g.
  problem solving),
• it is helpful to be taught appropriate procedures
  (identify the goal, analyse the givens, etc.)
• and understandings (what approaches or strategies
  work best in different situations).
• Higher-order thinking skills can be categorised
  into two main groups learning strategies and
  problem solving.
• Teaching higher-order thinking skills
• Typically, there are two methods of teaching
  higher-order thinking skills
• (i) Detached training and
• (ii) Embedded training.

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• Learning strategies
• Referred to as cognitive strategies,
• Encourage a deeper level of cognitive processing
  and thus helps to promote the acquisition,
  retention and transfer of knowledge, e.g. an
  analogy may be used as an embedded instructional
  strategy to make the content more meaningful.
• Learning strategies that can be used across
  subject domains are
• (a) the chunking or organising strategies
• (b) the spatial strategies
• (c) bridging strategies
• (d) general-purpose strategies.

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• Problem solving skills
• The most important higher-order thinking skills.
• Involve the use and application of skills for
  finding solutions, making decisions, and thinking
  inventively.
• Effective problem solving involves a number of
  specific skills that include
• problem identification/posing (including problem
  representation),
• distinguishing relevant from irrelevant
  information and understanding the problem well
  enough to know what information is missing,
  searching for appropriate information (both
  existing knowledge and new information),

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• identifying and evaluating alternative outcomes
  and solution strategies,
• knowing when and how to try out the selected
  alternative
• and the ability to use both general and
  domain-specific strategies.

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• Constructivist principles
• Provide authentic activities (Spiro et al 1992)
• Provide access to expert performance and the
  modelling process
• Provide multiple roles and perspectives
• Support collaborative construction of knowledge
• Promote reflection
• Promote articulation
• Provide coaching and scaffolding
• Provide for authentic assessment of learning
  within the task
• Provide exploration
• (Collins, Brown and others 1990 Duffy 1994,
  Jonassen 1995).

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Students need information literacy

• Information literacy involves the abilities to
• know when there is a need for information
• identify information needed to address a given
  problem issue
• locate the needed information
• organise the information
• use the information to effectively address the
  problem or issue.

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Paradigm shift from traditional learning models
to Problem-based learning model.

• Traditional learning model.
• Teacher as expert model
• textbook as primary source
• facts as primary
• information is packaged
• emphasis on product
• assessment is quantitative.

• Problem-based learning.
• Teacher as facilitator/guide
• variety of sources/media
• question as primary
• information is discovered
• emphasis on process
• assessment is quantitative/qualitative

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Problems Facing Students

• Students find learning difficult.
• Students tend to memorise facts, but fail to
  explain observed phenomena and solve real world
  problems, or to think critically.

• Lecture style teaching is NOT effective.
• Need to develop strategies to teach thinking
  and problem-solving skills

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Now What?
?
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Problem-based learning (PBL)

• PBL, according to Barrows is, " ... the
  learning which results from the process of
  working towards the understanding of, or
  resolution of, a problem." Barrows describes
  the main educational goals as
• To develop students' thinking or reasoning skills
  (problem solving, meta-cognition, critical
  thinking) and
• To help the students become independent,
  self-directed learners (learning to learn,
  learning management).

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In Problem-Based Learning, teachers encourage
students to

• be active, not passive in learning
• engage in inquiry approach to learning
• accept responsibility for their own learning
• develop problem-solving, decision-making and
  evaluation skills and
• develop a broad outlook on the world.

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• Students develop the ability to
• recognise bias
• make systematic comparisons
• form and defend opinions
• identify and develop alternative solutions
• solve problems independently and
• use responsible behaviour.

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• The purpose of PBL is to produce students who
  will
• Engage a challenge (problem, complex task, and
  situation) with initiative and enthusiasm
• Reason effectively, accurately, and creatively
  from an integrated, flexible, usable knowledge
  base
• Monitor and assess their own adequacy to achieve
  a desirable outcome given a challenge
• Address their own perceived inadequacies in
  knowledge and skills effectively and efficiently
• Collaborate effectively as a member of a team
  working to achieve a common goal.

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In PBL

• Students spend time in learning by identifying
  what they need to know, by finding out, by
  talking to each other and by applying their new
  knowledge
• The primary aim is learning itself not the
  completion of the project the project is the
  means to the end
• It is different from standard project work in
  that the ways in which the students are
  encouraged to tackle the problem are designed to
  encourage learning in a structured manner (albeit
  with substantial learner control)

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• The key ingredients of PBL are
• the problem as the focus of learning
• learning as the purpose of the problem
• the problem as the integrator of concepts and
  skills
• commitment to self-learning
• PBL is typically used in teamwork and small group
  situations as this encourages the development of
  reflective abilities

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• PBL encourages independent learning and deeper
  understanding of the material rather than
  superficial coverage, giving students practice in
  tackling engaging problems and defining their own
  gaps in understanding of the context of those
  problems
• the small group setting used in PBL encourages an
  inquisitive and detailed look at all issues,
  concepts and principles contained within the
  problem

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• The time spent outside of the group facilitates
  the development of skills such as literature
  retrieval, critical appraisal of available
  information and the seeking of opinions of peers
  and specialists
• PBL provides students with the opportunity to
  develop many skills including appreciating the
  diversity of inputs from different group members,
  time management, information retrieval,
  communication, and self-managed learning all
  critical for the practising software engineer.

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• PBL is powerful because
• it is a learning environment that embodies most
  of the principles that we know improve learning
  active, cooperating, getting prompt feedback,
  tailored to students learning performance with
  student empowerment and accountability
• it forces students to learn the fundamental
  principles of the subject in the context of
  needing it to solve a problem
• it offers an opportunity to practice, use and
  even develop such processing skills as problem
  solving, interpersonal, group and team skills,
  the ability to cope with change, lifelong or
  self-directed learning skills and self assessment
  skills.

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• Benefits of PBL include
• increased retention of data
• integration of knowledge
• life-long learning motivation to learn
• development of reasoning and critical thinking
  skills
• development of communication and interpersonal
  skills
• development of the ability to work effectively in
  a team.

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• Give the learner ownership of the process used to
  develop a solution
• Design the learner environment to support and
  challenge testing ideas against alternative views
  and alternative contexts
• Provide opportunity for, and support reflection
  on both the context learned and the learning
  process.
• PBL needs to be well designed and the tutor
  employing the method needs intensive preparation
  through hands-on educational experiences

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• Barrows states
• "The ability of the tutor to use facilitory
  teaching skills during small group learning
  process is the major determinant of the quality
  and success of any educational methods aimed at
  1) developing students' thinking or reasoning
  skills (problem solving, meta-cognition, critical
  thinking) as they learn, and 2) helping them to
  become independent, self-directed learners
  (learning to learn, learning management)"
• It is important to train tutors to adopt a new
  framework for the classroom when operating in PBL
  environments.

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Personal Experiences

• The following is some of the feedback from
  students.
• "PBL helps me how to solve problems, how to
  question myself on what and why I do certain
  things. It makes learning a very enjoyable
  process."
• "I learned more with the group than I would have
  individually"
• "PBL is the best thing I ever learned in my
  life."
• "I have learned how to identify big issues which
  are relevant to the problem."
• "I understand better by having to explain to the
  other members of the group."

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• Scott Dow
• BSc (Hons) Computing Science
• The PBL module taught me a completely new way to
  teach and learn. Using PBL is a very difficult
  concept to grasp early-on but, having learnt it,
  the value of it is immediately apparent. For the
  basis of our module we were split into groups
  along with students with many differing
  backgrounds and cultures. We were then set a
  task that would ordinarily be much too difficult
  to complete on our own. This forces the group to
  work together to solve that task.
• My own project was implemented using PBL in the
  structure. This allowed me as an individual to
  also apply this model to my own work. In doing
  so I feel that I was able to produce a project
  that was far above anything I could have produced
  without PBL. It is my opinion that this module
  should be compulsory for every entry student at
  university as, equipped with this knowledge from
  the beginning students would be able to perform
  much, much better throughout their time in
  education.
• PBL also allows for much better retention of the
  course materials. During the exam I had little
  or no difficulty in recalling what I needed to
  know to answer the questions. Speaking to my
  fellow students they also felt the same way. It
  seemed as if the exam was easier, when in fact,
  with hindsight it was just that our knowledge was
  better having learnt it for ourselves.
• So, as a final thought I would recommend PBL to
  anyone considering taking the subject. It will
  equip you with a means to learn that is very
  different, but also much better than anything you
  will have experienced previously. Although it
  involves much more work, in the long-term you
  will reap the benefits of this method. Already,
  the courseware I implemented using the methods
  discussed have seen improvements in the students
  using it at Clough Hall Technology School. I
  will continue to use the methods, not only in
  teaching but in my own personal and professional
  development. This is, without a doubt, the
  single most valuable subject I have studied at
  university in four years and anyone not taking it
  has truly missed out on a very valuable
  experience.

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• Mathew Cartwight
• BSc (Hons) Computing Science
• From a more personal opinion this module has
  helped me complete my final year dissertation at
  university. My background has not been in
  computing and it was a struggle to meet the
  standards required of me, but after undertaking
  the PBL module, I have now completed a final year
  dissertation which I honestly did not think was
  possible.

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• Sajid Bashir
• BSc (Hons) Internet Technology student
• Overall I can confidently say that I have
  acquired a skill that I will use for the rest of
  my life. I knew that when I came to university I
  will walk away with many skills but not such a
  beneficial skill as PBL. PBL has provided me with
  a skill that has made me a confident person, it
  has provided me with the required knowledge I
  needed before I undertake a full time job. One of
  the things I was dreading after university was
  taking on a job, i thought I might not be able to
  achieve the tasks that were given to me. However,
  now that I have acquired this skill of PBL I can
  confidently say that I am looking forward to the
  working world.

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• Asif Khalil
• BSc Computing Science Student
• At first this method of learning seemed very
  difficult and challenging because it was a
  completely new approach. At that time I did not
  realise how useful PBL will be, not only for the
  given problem but also how the same method could
  be applied to other areas of my studies,
  fundamentally in tackling my final year project.
  The research was then challenged by being
  thoroughly questioned in every aspect, this
  demonstrated what knowledge I had learned and
  understood. I found this method of learning very
  effective in increasing self motivation as I
  enjoyed facing the challenge, as well as
  increasing the knowledge gained on a wider scope.
• My final year project which was an Interactive
  Training Package for Hanson Building Products
  Hoveringham, adopted the PBL method. My final
  year project supervisor challenged me on the
  research around the problem area which resulted
  in a successful project. On reflection PBL has
  helped me to improve many of my existing skills
  including independent research and linking
  different areas of research by recognising the
  key factors. This has aided in good time
  management and improving my organisation skills
  as I was able to recognise at a very early stage
  what type of research was required to solve the
  problem hence, resulting in solving the project
  efficiently and effectively.

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• Khoo Kok Lung
• BSc (Hons) Computing Science
• Unlike other module class that I have attended
  before, I felt that this module is not only
  talking about a particular subject area but it
  broadly teaches doing proper research, guides me
  in handling my FYP wholly and helps me to find
  and improve the way I learn and study. Having
  attended this lesson I also have learnt
  articulating with a group of my friends and the
  lecturer, giving me a lot of knowledge in gaining
  and improving critical thinking skills in the
  process of struggling with the actual problem.
  During the project development, PBL have helped
  me to develop critical thinking skills where I
  can
• Clearly define a problem
• Develop alternative theories
• Access, evaluate, and utilize data from a variety
  of sources
• Alter theories given new information
• Develop clearly stated solutions that fit the
  problem and its inherent conditions, based upon
  information and clearly clarified reasoning.

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• Long-term benefits
• "Confronted with limited information, I use the
  various problem-solving techniques taught in ISD
  to provide consultation for my clients."
• "The ISD module was very useful to me ... in
  order to build our two working prototypes in
  time...
• "As software engineers, ISD has equipped us to be
  better team players, ... to master new languages
  and software tools."
• "I personally found the ISD module extremely
  useful, particularly the principles of
  Problem-Based Learning, which I still use to
  tackle day-to-day research problems."

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Conclusion

• Today, students learn in an information age
• New technology will not automatically
  revolutionise learning, we need to change our
  learning paradigm
• Problem-based learning provides a practical means
  of contributing to the long-established
  educational goal of individualising the learning
  process.