Problem-Based Learning in Professional Education

1. Problem-Based Learning in Professional Education Doris R. Brodeur Massachusetts Institute of Technology dbrodeur@mit.edu AAHE - April 2004

2. Professional Education Medicine and Health Care Business Teaching Engineering Law Architecture

3. Today’s Objectives Apply knowledge of PBL to your own professional programs Share ideas and experiences of PBL with other participants

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

5. PBL: Problem? Project? Performance? Problem-Based Learning Project-Based Learning Performance-Based Learning

6. Student-centered and self-directed The Water Bike Project at The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm

7. Organized around real-world problems The SPHERES Project at MIT

8. Focused on authentic skills

9. Collaborative

10. With faculty as facilitators Workshop at Queen’s University, Belfast

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

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

13. 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

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

15. 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

16. 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

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

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

19. Pair-and-Share • Describe a sample problem in your area • List the key intended learning outcomes for this PBL experience • Describe the learning environment

20. 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

21. 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 learner’s thinking • Design the task and environment to reflect the complexity of the environment in which learners will later function

22. 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

23. 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

24. Level of Complexity #1 • Structured problem • Known solution • Individual or group solution • Same problem for all students • Short time frame

25. Level of Complexity #2 • Structured problem • Known solution • Team solution • Same problem for all teams • Short time frame Autonomous Robots at MIT

26. 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

27. 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

28. Pair-and-Share • Discuss the levels of complexity and sequencing of PBL experiences in your professional programs

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

30. Intended Learning Outcomes • Content knowledge • Reasoning and problem solving • Oral and written communication • Teamwork and collaboration • Project management • Self-directed learning

31. 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

32. Matching Assessment With Outcomes

33. Project Assessment • Product Review • Built to specification • Time • Team Collaboration • Written Documentation • Reflective Journal Formula Student Project at Chalmers Institute of Technology, Gothenberg

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

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