Fall 1998
Vol 7 Issue 1
IN THIS ISSUE...
Signposts for the New Millennium
Year 2000: Same, but Different
Chinese Higher Education, In My Eyes
Fibber McGee's Closet: Peeking Around the Corner into the Next Millennium
Problem-Based Learning
SEE ALSO...
The Labyrinth
Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction
Problem-Based Learning: Redefining Self-Directed Instruction and Learning
Dean Stover, GWCC
Various task forces, professional associations and other groups have recommended educational changes designed to better prepare students to participate fully and productively in today's technology-based workplaces and those of the 21st Century. The key skills listed include critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, verbal and written communication, ability to research, and lifelong learning. This recommendation has been articulated in Goals 2000, the SCANS Reports, What Work Requires of Schools (1991) and Learning a Living: A Blueprint for High Performance (1992), and by educational leaders at the 1994 Wingspread Conference and The National Research Council in 1996. These organizations also emphasized the need to prepare our students to become successful citizens. A common theme among systemic reform advocates has been that current curriculum and pedagogy often fail to prepare students to use what they have "learned" to solve real problems which they encounter in the workplace or in a democracy.
Intuitively, teachers know this is true. We know that what we teach in one class is not often transferred to other classes. To meet this concern and help students become more independent and interdependent learners, we have adopted cooperative learning techniques and developed learning communities so students are required to make connections among courses. These strategies do move us along a continuum toward self-directed learning, but there is another step which better accomplishes this goal: problem-based learning.
So what is PBL? According to Finkle and Torp, "problem-based learning is a curriculum development and instructional system that simultaneously develops both problem-solving strategies and disciplinary knowledge bases and skills by placing students in the active role of problem-solvers confronted with an ill-structured problem that mirrors real-world problems."
I first heard about PBL in 1997 when MCCD sponsored a LodeStar presentation by Harold Barrows who was part of a faculty group at McMasters University that first developed PBL to train graduate students at a medical school and Ann Kelson, another internationally recognized PBL leader. (Mr. Barrows is now at Southern Illinois University. At the same time, a team at GateWay put together a FIPSE (Fund for Improving Post-Secondary Education) proposal to use PBL to integrate general education courses into the Facilities Systems Technology (FST) Program which trains students to manage the heating and cooling systems for buildings.
Research by Stepien, Gallagher, and Workman shows that PBL will increase retention of knowledge, help students transfer concepts to new problems, enhance student interest in the content, and enhance self-directed learning. We believe that our project will be a model not only for technology or vocational programs but also for general education in MCCD and elsewhere as we head into the 21st Century.
Using this approach means that students will not take separate classes to obtain a degree but will solve a series of problems during the two-year program. By solving those problems, students will meet the competencies for all the courses in their program. The problems used in the program will consist of a series of common, important and ill-structured problems (ill-structured so there will be multiple solutions). These are designed by people from Intel and Johnson Controls (our industry partners in the grant). These problems will be carefully selected so their solutions will encompass the degree competencies. Students will test their solutions in a real-world lab provided by Johnson Controls. After solving a problem as a team, individuals will then be given another problem to solve on their own in order to demonstrate how well they have met the competencies covered in each problem.
Solving real-world problems changes student and faculty roles. Because students are engaged by the relevant problem, they "own" the problem and much of the learning process is turned over to the student. Students meet twice a week with a faculty tutor. At these meetings, students define the problem, identify what they know, and then discover the concepts, principles and skills they need to know to solve the problem. What they need to know becomes the "learning issues" they focus on to solve the problem.
Most of the students' time that was previously spent in a technology class now is spent researching and meeting with their teams to discuss what they've learned and what they still need to know. This cycle of individually researching information and then, in teams, evaluating, questioning, discussing, and hypothesizing what that information means becomes the process they will use to solve all problems. Students become self-directed, independent learners who will work well in teams as they solve current and future problems in all kinds of settings.
The roles for faculty also change dramatically, for they become mentors or tutors whose task is to help students discover and foster an effective process for solving problems. Tutor manuals are written to help faculty know which knowledge and skills will be focused on for each particular problem in order to make sure students don't stray too far from the goals of the problem. Through appropriate questioning, faculty tutors help guide students through the process, but they never provide the answers. Other faculty mentors then serve as resources for students and can provide mini-lectures, workshops or other assistance the students need to help them solve the problem.
Of course, this model will need to be adapted to work in the open admissions policy found in the community college setting. However, we believe that as long as we provide support services for students with low-level skills in math, science or English, our students will succeed because they will be motivated by solving real-world problems.
So where will problem-based learning lead us in the 21st Century? It will lead us to a new definition of at least five key issues:
- It redefines student and faculty roles in teaching and learning. Students take full responsibility for learning; faculty take full responsibility for problem design and for tutoring or mentoring students.
- It redefines how students will meet competencies. Students must still be able to demonstrate the competencies for all courses they would normally take separately; however, there will be much less time spent in class. Typically, FST students would be in class four hours a day, five days a week. For PBL teams, they will meet two times for a total of four hours a week; the rest of the time will be used for researching the learning issues and developing necessary skills. Faculty will serve as resources for the students, and provide more one-on-one or small group instruction.
- It redefines student services: we will need to develop new approaches for enrollment management, fee payment, and transcript formatting.
- It redefines the need for buildings: Because the students won't be going to separate classes, the need for building space will be reduced.
- It redefines how faculty will be loaded. Instead of three hours load for each three-hour course, a new loading system will be worked out during the FIPSE grant process.
GateWay is proud to be developing a national model that has the potential to change the way many technology or vocational programs teach their programs. But PBL is not just for technical programs. PBL is a growing movement within education. Just check out the websites when you search "problem-based learning" (a good site to start exploring is compiled by AppleTech, and you will discover that elementary, high school, and post-secondary teachers are beginning to integrate this approach into their classrooms.
I'm convinced the future in education involves PBL. The real challenge for educators at the beginning of the 21st Century will be developing a PBL approach for all types of educational degrees so that most students become self-directed learners who can solve real-world problems. As Howard Barrows states, "Teachers realize that PBL puts many things they have added to their traditional teaching (problem solving activities, collaborative learning, critical thinking exercises, independent study) into context and gives them meaning. Problem-based learning is a natural and powerful way for the brain to learn."
See also MCLI's PBL web-site at:
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/pbl/