Developing Capacities for New Competencies: Use of problem-based innovation in Singapore

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Developing Capacities for New CompetenciesUse
of problem-based innovation in Singapore

• Prof Dr. Tan, Oon Seng
• National Institute of Education, Singapore

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Outline

• The challenges of the 21st century
• The call for new competencies
• The role of education in developing the 21st
  century learner
• Key focuses of education in the Singapore context
• Problem-based learning as the missing piece in
  the puzzle
• The Problem-based learning process
• Five models of Problem-based learning
• Useful approaches within the Problem-based
  learning paradigm
• The role of Problem-based learning in education
  reform
• Impact of Problem-based learning on learners
• Conclusion

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Challenges of the 21st century

• The current age is an era of global pandemics,
  environmental disasters, terrorism, and complex
  political and socio-economic problems.
• 21st century calls for a transformation of
  thought
• Flexible thinking in new environments
• Education today lacks effective use of inquiry
  and problem-solving approaches.
• The 21st century worker needs to
• think on his feet when confronted with an
  unfamiliar situation.
• be able to adapt positively to rapidly changing
  demands.
• be competent to take on problems with an
  inquisitive mind.
• constantly improve and innovate on processes and
  products.
• creatively integrate information from the various
  disciplines.
• Education plays an important role in preparing
  citizens to acquire cognitive skills needed to
  function in new and changing environments.

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The call for new competencies

• Poll of US employers highlighted some key 21st
  century skills.
• The ability to think outside the box
• Creativity, innovativeness and the ability to
  think across disciplines
• New-media/information literacy
• The ability to manage, interpret, validate and
  use information
• The ability to research, formulate ideas and
  defend their own views
• Good people skills
• Social awareness skills, self-awareness,
  self-management, communication skills
• Critical thinking skills
• The ability to evaluate the validity and
  reliability of information
• The ability to reason intelligently and
  coherently
• A telescopic and helicopter worldview
• Understanding the past and seeing the future
• Rising above the micro and fragmentary and
  acquiring a bigger picture of things
• Knowing how to learn
• Ability to self-instruct and self-monitor
  learning
• Ability to interact with multiple modes of
  learning and engage with creative people

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Role of education in developing the 21st century
learner

• The 21st century is characterised by a
  knowledge-based economy.
• Challenges the traditional notions of knowledge,
  skills and attitude transmission
• To thrive, students need to be equipped with
  intelligence manifested in the ability to deal
  with new real-world problems
• A different set of intelligences e.g. learning
  how to do things, ability to deal with novelty,
  capacity to adapt our interactions with the
  environment
• Education in the KBE should
• encourage learning throughout life
• foster the transfer of learning across contexts
  and disciplines
• allow the individual to assume greater
  responsibility for ones learning
• teach the learner how to learn from multiple
  sources and resources
• engage the learner to learn collaboratively
• train the learner to cope with change and solve
  problems

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Key focuses of education in the Singapore context

• A vision to turn Singapore into a place for
  people to develop their potential through
  continuous learning
• Mindset changes towards learning are necessary
• Learners need to assume personal responsibility
  for ones own learning
• Teachers need to believe that innovation in
  education is necessary
• Ministry of Education, Singapore identified core
  knowledge and skill-sets for 21st century living
  as new key focuses for education
• Knowledge of world issues and current affairs
• Literacy (numerical, linguistic, cultural,
  scientific and technological domains)
• Life-long learning skills
• Ability to manage ambiguity, complexity and
  novelty
• Ability to communicate new ideas

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Problem-based learning is the missing piece in
the puzzle

• Problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum is an
  ideal paradigm for developing the 21st century
  learner.
• Problem presented ? Further exploration ? Achieve
  sufficient understanding
• Problem can take on various forms.
• Problem is unstructured and open-ended in nature.
• Problem to challenge students current knowledge,
  attitudes and competencies
• Serves as an anchor for opportunities to be
  advanced
• PBL offers opportunities to exercise and develop
  creativity.
• Creative ability is important the process which
  gives rise to a change in perception
• Valued as an essential capability in an age of
  information accessibility, globalization
• Essential trait for generating new
  ideas/applications

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Problem-based learning is the missing piece in
the puzzle

• Collaborative knowledge-building and
  self-directed learning environment
• Group members identify information needed and
  share responsibilities in information searches.
• Information then organized into a meaningful
  conceptual framework
• Learner relies on various sources (internet,
  media, library, etc) for self-directed study.
• PBL is a learner-centred approach
• PBL pedagogy is based on constructivism
• Learners develop the ability to deal with novelty
  and complexity.
• Problem will call for multiple perspectives?
  takes into account knowledge from different
  subjects and disciplines
• Learners assume major responsibility in
  information and knowledge acquisition.
• Learners inquiry and problem-solving skills
  developed in the process

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The PBL process

• Problem presented to students
• Problem may be in the form of a case study
  analysis, research paper finding, videotape
  recording etc
• Students pose learning issues throughout the
  discussions to delineate aspects of the problem
  they cannot understand.
• Learning issues recorded and used to generate and
  focus discussions
• Group to decide which questions will be addressed
  by the whole group/handled by individuals
• Process develops into one with a broad overview
  encompassing analytical thinking, generative and
  divergent thinking.
• Facilitators to scaffold to enable conceptual
  clarification, knowledge building, argumentation
  and evaluation and the evolution of new
  perspective
• Students come together to synthesize previous
  learning issues with/into new knowledge? learning
  as an ongoing process

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Five models of PBL (differentiated by the role
of learners in process of knowledge construction)

• (1) PBL for epistemologocal competence
• PBL as a means of helping students to acquire
  required curriculum content and to become
  competent in applying the knowledge to solve
  problems
• (2) PBL for professional action
• Students to be empowered with capabilities and
  mechanisms to apply the ability to other kinds of
  problem scenarios and situations within given
  frameworks
• Important to integrate this model with skills
  concepts, cognitive content and professional
  judgment
• (3) PBL for interdisciplinary understanding
• Learning is knowing and understanding knowledge
  from the different disciplines, and recognizing
  the relationship between them.

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Five models of PBL (differentiated by the role
of learners in process of knowledge construction)

• (4) PBL for transdisciplinary learning
• PBL group used as a platform to examine personal
  and pedagogical framework
• Students to develop an overview of the framework
  by adopting a critical position towards
  knowledge, themselves and their peers.
• (5) PBL for critical contestability
• Students required to examine underlying
  structures and belief systems implicit within a
  discipline
• Students involved in knowledge construction?
  build upon and integrate previously learned
  knowledge and skills with current material

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Useful approaches within PBL paradigm
Three levels in terms of increasing authenticity,
complexity, uncertainty and student self-direction

• Level 1 Academic Challenge
• Student work structured as a problem arising
  directly from an area of study? develop in
  students the capacity for active learning
• Alex is a school badminton player. He is 14 and
  his coach has mentioned to him about his
  potential to be selected for the national team.
  Apart from rigorous training, Alex is wondering
  if nutrition would help increase his chances. One
  day he walked into a store selling nutritional
  supplements in a shopping center. The salesperson
  told him that what he needed was more muscle
  without gaining a lot of weight. Alex ended up
  buying a jar of creatine tablets that cost 60
  and various other supplements costing 80. Alex
  learned subsequently that creatine comprises
  amino acids and is taken by many athletes. A
  family member, however, told him that there are
  side effects and that got him worried. Many
  athletes are in situations like Alexs. You and
  your group have been selected as young
  scientists for a project on sports nutrition.
  Your team has been tasked to come up with a
  report and presentation to advise school
  sportsmen/women on nutrition.

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Useful approaches within PBL paradigm
Three levels in terms of increasing authenticity,
complexity, uncertainty and student self-direction

• Level 2 Scenario Challenge
• Reality-based or fictional scenario used
• Students casted into real-life roles and asked to
  perform roles? skills and knowledge developed
  through the process
• Incorporates existing curricular material in the
  process
• A venture capitalist wants to invest in research
  on ornamental plants. He is particularly
  interested in cross-breeding that would produce
  new flowering plants of multiple forms and colors
  with characteristics of high rates of flower
  production, stem resilience, etc. Together with a
  team of researchers, you are involved in
  investigating the composition of the ultimate
  made-to-order multi-vitamin, multi-mineral pill,
  which is customized according to DNA profiles.
  How would you go about doing that?

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Useful approaches within PBL paradigm
Three levels in terms of increasing authenticity,
complexity, uncertainty and student self-direction

• Level 3 Real-life problem
• An actual problem in need of real solutions by
  real people or organizations
• As the geriatric population in Singapore
  increases, there is a growing need for services
  to help make the lives of the elderly easier and
  more rewarding. Unfortunately, there is
  inadequate planning rendered for aid to the
  elderly. The challenge is to plan, prepare and
  implement a way for students of your age to
  assist the elderly in this community. How could
  we get from here to the delivery of the
  assistance?
• Real nature of problem involves students
  directly and deeply in exploration of study.
• Students take action on issues and exert tangible
  impact in their own communities ? Such problems
  can present as powerful learning experiences

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Role of PBL in education reform

• Education reform needs to look into developing
  the intelligences in learners.
• Traditional education programmes have an
  over-preoccupation with content.
• Education would fail if institutions continue to
  teach only content to students ? content
  knowledge becomes obsolete or irrelevant.
• Efficacy of PBL paradigm supported by various
  studies
• In trying to relate theory to practice, students
• developed a greater ability to retain knowledge
  better and apply it more appropriately.
• displayed increased motivation.
• were able to engage in deep thinking.
• Changing emphasis of education needed to foster
  development of a critical mass of individuals
  with greater creativity and higher levels of
  thinking skills
• Develop skills of fluency, flexibility,
  originality and elaboration

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Role of PBL in education reform

• Internet revolution hastens need for curriculum
  content, delivery and assessment
• The authority of teachers as knowledge experts
  challenged
• In this revolution, educators to assume new roles
  ? designers of the learning environment imparter
  of transferable skills
• PBL approach is the ideal reinvention for
  education in the knowledge-based era.
• Real-life problems serve as more ideal anchors
  to train students how to learn.
• Fits in the call for the new era which calls for
  learners to become active problem solvers and
  teachers to be mediating coaches
• Individuals will be prepared with new
  competencies
• Also students are allowed to take greater
  ownership of their learning
• Kick-start the mindset change of the present and
  future generations

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Impact of PBL on learners

• Engages the learner holistically
• Increases the motivation of learners ?
  self-directed learning
• Active participation in problem-solving process ?
  learners acquire knowledge and problem solving
  skills.
• Students take on more responsibility for their
  learning as they delve deeper into issues of
  interest.
• Raises the learners sense of self-awareness
• Learners encouraged to assemble their own body of
  knowledge and ideas
• Collaborative environment leads to clarification
  of ones values, abilities, interests and goals ?
  increased self-awareness
• Enhances the social dimension of individuals
• Ready forum for exchange of ideas and
  perspectives ? trust ? strengthening of
  interpersonal relationships

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Impact of PBL on learners

• Promotes higher-order thinking
• Learners acquire domain-relevant skills,
  creativity-relevant skills in the process of
  assessing the credibility and validity of
  information retrieved
• The value of questions in discovering the problem
• Questions play a vital role in evoking
  intellectual curiosity.
• The role of constructivism to construct new
  cognitive structures
• Learner requires to make connections to see
  different perspectives.
• Teachers assist by scaffolding learners or by
  providing structure in knowledge construction.
• Encourages process of learning how to learn
• Students requires to identify existing gaps in
  their knowledge ? encourages metacognition and
  self-regulated learning
• Fosters new and different learning experiences
• Students link new knowledge to past through
  reflections? new meanings derived

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Impact of PBL on learners

• Maintains authenticity and relevance of learning
  to the real-world
• Real-life problem gets rid of queries about the
  irrelevance of information (traditional
  curriculum) ? students develop a tolerance for
  complexity of real-life situations and refined
  skills needed to solve real-life problems.
• Enhances connectivity
• Develops flexibility and helicopter views via
  cognitive strategies
• By linking with the following
• Prior knowledge, prior experiences, real-world
  context, theories, other peoples perceptions,
  new facts and ideas
• Fosters collaborative learning, which
• stimulates thinking through dialogue (mutual
  exploration, meaning-making and feedback)
• necessitates an atmosphere of critical openness
  between group members (for collaborative learning
  to take place)

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Conclusion

• Educational system in Singapore is one that is
  continually adapting with the times
• As of now Broad-based and holistic curriculum ?
  diversity within the curriculum structure created
• Our Asian roots calls for education as a means
  nurturing the whole child, in terms of his/her
  moral, intellectual, social and aesthetic
  development.
• Our physical location makes education also our
  key to survival.
• Education needs to keep up with the times ? PBL
  is the best paradigm for the new era
• Addresses the challenges of the 21st century
  develops learners competency in dealing with
  information/meaningful application of knowledge
  and skills
• Brings out the best in students building
  learning experiences on the interdependent
  attributes of meaningful learning