ProblemBased Learning in Professional Education

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Problem-Based Learning in Professional Education
Doris R. Brodeur Massachusetts Institute of
Technology dbrodeur_at_mit.edu
AAHE - April 2004
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Professional Education
Medicine and Health Care
Business
Teaching
Law
Engineering
Architecture
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Todays Objectives

Apply knowledge of PBL to your own professional
programs
Share ideas and experiences of PBL with other
participants
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Outline

• Key features of PBL
• Relevance to conference theme
• Learning theories that underlie PBL
• Design of PBL experiences
• Assessment of PBL experiences

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PBL Problem? Project? Performance?
Problem-Based Learning
Project-Based Learning
Performance-Based Learning
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Student-centered and self-directed

• The Water Bike Project at
• The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH),
  Stockholm

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Organized around real-world problems

The SPHERES Project at MIT
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Focused on authentic skills
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Collaborative
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With faculty as facilitators

Workshop at Queens University, Belfast
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Pair-and-Share

• Your name, affiliation, and professional area
• Experience with PBL (is it problem, project, or
  performance?)
• Questions about PBL

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Outline

• Key features of PBL
• Relevance to conference theme
• Learning theories that underlie PBL
• Design of PBL experiences
• Assessment of PBL experiences

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Democratic Transformations

• Opportunities for students to organize their own
  learning
• Increased access to multiple sources of
  information
• Changing roles for faculty
• Collaboration across disciplines, cultures, and
  countries

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Outline

• Relevance to conference theme
• Key features of PBL
• Learning theories that underlie PBL
• Design of PBL experiences
• Assessment of PBL experiences

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Constructivism

• What is learned is a function of the content,
  context, activity of the learner, and goals of
  the learner
• Students build their own internal frameworks of
  knowledge upon which they attach new ideas
• Cognitive conflict is the stimulus for learning

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Metacognition

• Knowing about knowing affects learning
• Students are encouraged to think critically and
  monitor their understanding
• Students reflect not only on what they know, but
  on how they know it

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Social Negotiation

• Social and cultural factors affect learning
• Knowledge evolves through social negotiation and
  evaluation of the viability of individual
  understandings
• Collaboration promotes PBL

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Outline

• Relevance to conference theme
• Key features of PBL
• Learning theories that underlie PBL
• Design of PBL experiences
• Assessment of PBL experiences

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Pair-and-Share

• Describe a sample problem in your area
• List the key intended learning outcomes for this
  PBL experience
• Describe the learning environment

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Designing Problems (1)

• Identify problems that raise the concepts and
  principles relevant to the content domain
• Anchor all learning activities to a larger task
  or problem
• Support the learner in developing ownership for
  the overall problem or task

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Designing Problems (2)

• Design an authentic task, i.e., one in which the
  thinking required is consistent with the thinking
  in the environment for which the learner is
  preparing
• Design the learning environment to support and
  challenge the learners thinking
• Design the task and environment to reflect the
  complexity of the environment in which learners
  will later function

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Designing Problems (3)

• Encourage testing ideas against alternative views
  and alternative contexts
• Set realistic and assessable parameters
• Provide opportunities for reflection on both the
  content learned and the learning process

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Sequencing PBL Experiences

• The learning sequence is not necessarily the same
  as the sequence of the process in the
  professional environment
• Sequence for levels of complexity in problem
  structure, type of solution, number of people
  required, length of time

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Level of Complexity 1

• Structured problem
• Known solution
• Individual or group solution
• Same problem for all students
• Short time frame

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Level of Complexity 2

• Structured problem
• Known solution
• Team solution
• Same problem for all teams
• Short time frame

Autonomous Robots at MIT
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Level of Complexity 3

• Complex problem
• Solution can be known or unknown
• Team solution
• Different problem for each team
• Several weeks or months

Third-Year Electronics Project at Linkoping
University
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Level of Complexity 4

• Complex problem
• Unknown solution
• Team solution
• Single problem solved by multiple sub-teams
• More than one term long

ARGOS Project at MIT
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Pair-and-Share

• Discuss the levels of complexity and sequencing
  of PBL experiences in your professional programs

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Outline

• Relevance to conference theme
• Key features of PBL
• Learning theories that underlie PBL
• Design of PBL experiences
• Assessment of PBL experiences

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Intended Learning Outcomes

• Content knowledge
• Reasoning and problem solving
• Oral and written communication
• Teamwork and collaboration
• Project management
• Self-directed learning

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Assessment Methods
Observation with Rating Scale
Case Study Analysis
Self-Assessment with Rating Scale
Intended Learning Outcomes
Oral Questions and Interviews
Journals and Portfolios
Product Review with Rating Scale
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Matching Assessment With Outcomes
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Project Assessment

• Product Review
• Built to specification
• Time
• Team Collaboration
• Written Documentation
• Reflective Journal

Formula Student Project at Chalmers Institute of
Technology, Gothenberg
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Project Assessment

• Product Review
• Built to specification
• Course completion
• Time
• Number of trials
• Team Collaboration
• Articulation of robot logic

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Summary

• Key features of PBL
• Learning theories that underlie PBL
• Design of PBL experiences
• Assessment of PBL experiences
• QUESTIONS?