At the end, the students and the mentor evaluate the quality of the answers they obtained, as well as the effectiveness of the processes used. PBL is aligned with the objectives of the University of Adelaide's Learning and Teaching Plan. At the heart of the Learning and Teaching Plan is the goal of promoting greater opportunities for student-centered learning.
One indirect cost is the initial shock or "grieving period" for both staff and students (Woods 19941), as many learning and teaching strategies suitable for a standard lecture and tutorial format are inappropriate in a PBL environment. By discussing the problem, students find out what they need to learn. The goal is no longer to obtain a specific answer to a predetermined problem or to memorize the subject matter.
CONTENTS
- Get tutor training CONTENTS
- Prepare your students
- Developing objectives CONTENTS
- Formulating the Problems CONTENTS
- Combining problems
- Providing resources CONTENTS
Providing a course guide, including how and what to assess can clarify expectations. It is very helpful to have a simple introduction to the PBL process that will introduce them to some of the new methods and expectations and allow them to generate their own knowledge of the types of problem solving and skills of the group they will need to develop. By making a problem the centerpiece of the learning experience, students are encouraged to seek only the information they need to solve the problem.
Careful problem design is necessary to ensure that most of the course objectives are met. One standard way of approaching the development of course objectives is to work out what you want the students to acquire by the end of the course in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Think in terms of the subject or course concepts you are trying to overcome.
Developing the problems FAQ CONTENTS
As with all curricular approaches, it is important that assessment matches learning objectives and teaching methodology. The assessment practices described below are designed to provide students with feedback on their knowledge, skills and attitudes.
Steps in assessment
Define objectives and specify criteria in assessment
Decide on assessment instruments
Define criteria and marking system
Assessment FAQ CONTENTS
If grade determination is a criterion, the performance of each student is compared to a set of explicit criteria; if norm referenced, the student's performance is compared to that of others in the cohort. In PBL, criterion-referenced assessment appears to be most appropriate, as we are interested in whether students have met certain standards as opposed to who has exceeded them. It is important that explicit and widely applicable assessment criteria and standards relating to each criterion are established for all assessment tasks.
A non-graded passing system (ie students' work is graded as either 'satisfactory' or 'unsatisfactory' rather than distinction/credit/pass/fail) is often used in PBL to encourage collaborative learning among students. It is argued that the competitive, 'mark-chasing' ethos common in many university classes hinders the problem-solving and collaborative learning processes necessary for a PBL group to function effectively. However, some PBL courses award grades above 'pass/satisfactory' on the basis that outstanding achievements should be recognized and as a form of motivation to encourage students to do more than the minimum.
Evaluation allows you to see how effective your course has been and how effective you have been in presenting the course. One of the lessons learned about evaluation is not to try to evaluate too much at once.
Types of evaluation
Steps in evaluation CONTENTS
- Select what it is you want to evaluate
- Select the most appropriate strategy for the evaluation
- Analyse the results
- Provide feedback and propose action
- Present the problem CONTENTS
- Generate objectives
- Organise the group CONTENTS
Following the format of the first PBL session, the assessor will pose a problem; how we evaluate the performance of this tutor. Specifically, the evaluator begins by outlining the tutor's goals and then asks the students;. At this point, students may also want to add objectives set by the tutor.
Some of these methods are listed in the table below, along with the aspects of the course that each evaluates. The results of the evaluation should be summarized and fed back to the students, together with information about how you or the School will respond. Each case may have specific emphases, which is why it is important for tutors involved in the program to have an appreciation of the case of the.
However, if the information is not readily available, you may need to provide information to students on paper or on the Internet. This is not ideal, but it at least allows students to work in smaller groups. During the first PBL meeting, students are introduced to the problem and the problem-based learning cycle.
After having some practice in the induction process with a dummy problem, the students and the tutor will be somewhat comfortable with the stages of the process. The tutor ends this phase by encouraging the students to critically examine their preliminary proposals. Once the problem has been set up and the students have generated a number of learning issues, these can then be converted into learning objectives for the problem.
Students then individually use the available resources to develop an understanding of the information, which they can then bring back to the group for another session.
First Meeting FAQ CONTENTS
If the case is well written and objective based, students will generally cover all the core objectives. If the students do not tackle a certain area, the skill of the mentor is important here. Without telling the students, the tutor may need to use some creative questioning to get the students to focus on certain aspects.
If this doesn't get the students' attention, wait until the next session and see how the learning process unfolds. All groups move at a different pace and this must be taken into account. Students can meet informally outside these times, but that is a decision they can make themselves and the teacher does not have to be present. Students gradually learn to manage the uncertainty in the learning process as they take control of their learning process.
These are often the students who do not want to take responsibility for their own learning process, or who find it difficult to know what they should learn. For those who do not want to have control over their learning, it is important to reiterate that this is part of the process of becoming independent and self-directed learners. For students who are frustrated because they don't know how to learn, it is important that the teacher provides guidance on how students can learn between sessions.
It should be made clear to students that the teacher's role is not to provide answers, but to guide their learning. Students need to understand that they need to understand ideas and active learning is more likely if they face and solve their own learning problems. Instead of giving them the answer, ask them what they should research now to help them find the answer.
The students have now met once, discussed the problem, developed learning objectives (in the first lesson) and collected and summarized material individually (between lessons).
Second meeting: The students share and evaluate the information
A third meeting to consolidate
Final meeting: Generalisation, Feedback and Evaluation
Concept maps or similar techniques can help facilitate students' presentation skills. Describe the things you think worked well and those that could be improved next time. These can be incorporated into the learning objectives for this group with their next problem.
Students should have the opportunity to say what went well for them and what didn't. If any patterns develop around the things that didn't work, these can be explored as problems using some of the skills the students were learning.
Further meetings FAQ CONTENTS
The PBL problem is designed to be presented at the end (in the last five weeks) of the normal course as a preliminary and experimental step towards, perhaps, the implementation of a full-scale PBL course in the future . The idea of the following page is twofold: . it provides examples of objectives, problems, assessments and evaluations it describes the iterative development of the problem. The original formulation of the problem appears first, followed by the critique of each facet of the design and our reflections on redesign, followed by an attempted redesign.
However, if you just want to view the finished version of the issue on its own, you can find it here. The more specific learning objectives for each stage of the PBL process would be visible only to the teacher's eyes, in their briefing notes. The big problem I kept running into was the extent to which I could influence the direction of the students.
After all, if they decided that the problem was entirely political, I don't think they would have much of a chance to engage in the kind of thinking that would enable them to distinguish between alternative accounts, or the knowledge of the history of the debate that would inform their expertise as practicing psychologists. It also appeared that the level of sophistication of the students was an important factor in deciding how much or how little guidance to give. One of the benefits is that it will give me greater control over how quickly the students reach the problem.
Phonics in the resource list should provide students with an understanding of the role of statistics in assessing such issues. Many of the answers are partially correct and receive partial credit, and as the problem is worked through the paper, students can use the additional information to go back and change their answers as they see fit. In this case, learning when and how to ask open-ended questions was part of the equation.
Again, teachers must identify the occasions when students need the skills, attitudes and knowledge that will help them master the problem. In any case, students should 'tape off' the process for the entire duration of a course. The remainder would fall into the earlier stages of the course, where traditional teaching continued.
Resources
My alternative this time is to offer a smaller version of the multiple choice exam, but make it worth only 5% of the total grade for the course, with an additional 10% for committed attendance at the sessions and student meetings scheduled in between.
Rationale
Course Objectives
Problem Title
Problem CONTENTS
Expected Learning Issues
Tutor notes
What we don't know we need to know to progress rationally, by the standards of experimental psychology.
Assessment CONTENTS
Feedback session
Evaluation
