Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning

Definitions and Uses: Case Study of Teachers Implementing Project-based Learning

Suha R. Tamim et al. — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:50:00 PDT

The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore inservice teachers’ definitions of project based learning (PjBL) and their accounts on the meaning of their PjBL implementations. A purposive sample of six teachers from grades four through twelve in public and private schools participated. Three themes evolved from inductive analysis: (1) teachers define PjBL through its perceived advantages on learning, (2) teachers vary in their use of PjBL over the continuum of the learning process, and (3) teachers adopt student-centered approaches in PjBL. Interpretations and implications of the findings are also presented.

The Effects of a Collaborative Problem-based Learning Experience on Students’ Motivation in Engineering Capstone Courses

Brett D. Jones et al. — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:49:57 PDT

We identified and examined how the instructional elements of problem-based learning capstone engineering courses affected students’ motivation to engage in the courses. We employed a two-phase, sequential, explanatory, mixed methods research design. For the quantitative phase, 47 undergraduate students at a large public university completed a questionnaire that measured the components of the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation (Jones, 2009): empowerment, usefulness, success, situational interest, individual interest, academic caring, and personal caring. For the qualitative phase that followed, 10 students answered questions related to the MUSIC components. We identified several instructional elements that led to motivating opportunities that affected students’ motivation to engage in the courses. We discuss how these motivating opportunities can foster or hinder students’ engagement and provide implications for instruction.

Drugs, Devices, and Desires: A Problem-based Learning Course in the History of Medicine

Sarah Levitt et al. — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:46:16 PDT

Problem-based learning (PBL) is well suited for courses in the history of medicine, where multiple perspectives exist and information has to be gleaned from different sources. A student, an archivist, and a teacher offer three perspectives about a senior level course where students explored the antecedents and consequences of medical technology. Two active learning strategies were used: (a) PBL to explore the historical basis of procedures used to diagnose, prevent and treat a single disease, tuberculosis, and (b) a concurrent inquiry-based component that permitted individual exploration of other medical technologies and demonstration of learning through diverse options (book reviews, conversations, essays, archival research, oral exams). This course was highly rated by students with an overall rating of 9.5 ± 0.7 (36 students from 2008–2012).

“Voices from the Field” Overview, Call for Papers, and Section Introduction

Michael M. Grant — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:46:15 PDT

Commentary for the Special Issue: PBL Scholarship: Building on the Educational Vision of Howard Barrows

Peggy A. Ertmer — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:46:14 PDT

In this commentary, I discuss each of the seven articles included in this special issue, which, as a collection, honor the impact of Howard Barrows’ vision on the scholarship and practice of problem-based learning (PBL). Collectively, these articles represent a variety of contexts, content areas, delivery formats, and structures in PBL implementations and research. Each article is examined and evaluated for specific information that practitioners and researchers may use in their future PBL efforts.

Building On and Honoring Forty Years of PBL Scholarship from Howard Barrows: A Scientometric, Large-Scale Data, and Visualization-based Analysis

Hanjun Xian et al. — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:31:46 PDT

Over the past forty years, Howard Barrows’ contributions to PBL research have influenced and guided educational research and practice in a diversity of domains. It is necessary to make visible to all PBL scholars what has been accomplished, what is perceived as significant, and what is the scope of applicability for Barrows’ groundbreaking findings. As more disciplines recognize Barrows’ efforts and adopt PBL in education, it becomes crucial but challenging to sustain community memory so that PBL scholars are kept well informed of research innovations in various domains. In this paper, we review Barrows’ scholarly efforts in PBL and reveal the impacts on subsequent studies in various domains. A bibliometrics analysis is conducted on Barrows’ PBL publications and the corresponding citations to quantitatively measure Barrows’ impact. Our findings demonstrate Barrows’ exceptional contributions to PBL and the disciplinary differences in conducting PBL studies based on Barrows’ work. It is also revealed that PBL scholars who share similar interests have rarely collaborated with each other. The PBL research community has a real opportunity to connect isolated research groups and reduce the fragmentation so that research innovations in one domain can be disseminated to inform other scholars.

Using Problem-based Learning to Explore Unseen Academic Potential

Shelagh A. Gallagher et al. — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:31:45 PDT

One goal of the US Department of Education-funded Project Insights was to see if the use of Problem-based Learning (PBL) would encourage students to reveal previously unseen academic potential. Two PBL units were taught to 271 sixth grade students in 13 classrooms. Afterwards, teachers identified students who demonstrated previously unseen academic potential during the PBL units. This advanced academic potential group was compared with students identified as gifted using district criteria and the remaining sixth grade students. Measures included standardized achievement test scores, teacher ratings of students’ engagement in PBL, and independent ratings of students’ performance on specific PBL assignments. Results of comparisons support the teacher’s identification of the advanced academic potential students as a group distinct from both from the traditionally identified students and general education students. Findings suggest that a well-designed, engaging curriculum such as PBL can create learning context that encourages more students to reveal academic potential.

Problem-based Learning Across the Curriculum: Exploring the Efficacy of a Cross-curricular Application of Preparation for Future Learning

Karen Swan et al. — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:31:43 PDT

The research reported in this paper explores the applicability and efficacy of a variant of problem-based learning, the Preparation for Future Learning (PFL) approach, to teaching and learning within the context of a cross-curricular, middle school data literacy unit called Thinking with Data (TWD). A quasi-experimental design was used to compare pre-to-post-test data literacy gains of seventh grade students participating in the TWD unit with other seventh graders in two middle schools in northeast Ohio. Results show statistically significant differences between the two groups. Taken together with participant comments, the findings suggest that the PFL approach can be effectively implemented across subject areas to support the development of data literacy.

Promoting Positive Academic Dispositions Using a Web-based PBL Environment: The GlobalEd 2 Project

Scott W. Brown et al. — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:31:38 PDT

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional design approach for promoting student learning, understanding and knowledge development in context rich settings. Previous PBL research has primarily focused on face-to-face learning environments, but current technologies afford PBL designers the opportunities to create online, virtual, PBL environments. The GlobalEd 2 Project is an example of a PBL environment that combines the positive characteristics of both face-to-face and online environments in a 14-week simulation of international negotiations of science advisors on global water resource issues. The GlobalEd 2 PBL environment is described examining the impact it has had on middle school students’ interest in future science education experiences, self-efficacy related to writing in science and self-efficacy related to technology use for academic purposes using a pre-test post-test design. Analyses using ANOVAs of gain scores and ANCOVAs of subgroup differences demonstrate a positive impact on the science interest and self-efficacy of 208 middle-grade students from urban and suburban schools.

Exploring the Relationships Between Tutor Background, Tutor Training, and Student Learning: A Problem-based Learning Meta-Analysis

Heather Leary et al. — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:31:37 PDT

Despite years of primary research on problem-based learning and literature reviews, no systematic effort has been made to analyze the relationship between tutor characteristics and student learning outcomes. In an effort to fill that gap the following meta-analysis coded 223 outcomes from 94 studies with small but positive gains for PBL students (g = 0.24). Specific sub-group analyses indicate randomly controlled designs may be more sensitive to differences that favor PBL students, even while there is no relationship between tutor content expertise and student learning. Perhaps surprisingly, student learning decreases as tutor experience increases. Limitations and future work are discussed within a context of scholarly and practical significance.

Creating a Learning Space in Problem-based Learning

Cindy E. Hmelo-Silver — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:31:36 PDT

An important aspect of PBL problems is the affordances that they hold for engaging students in discussion of important content knowledge. In this paper, I argue that one can analyze a problem in terms of a deep problem space and a broader learning space to identify the conceptual ideas for potential engagement. The problem space refers to the specific ideas and concepts that are part of the goals of the problem at hand. The learning space includes those aspects of the problem space and also includes the broader space of related conceptual ideas such as the anatomy and physiology related to a particular disorder or the pathology and clinical medicine of other disorders that might be considered as part of a differential diagnosis. This idea is tested in an exploratory analysis of a PBL tutorial conducted by Howard Barrows. The results demonstrate that much of students’ talk is focused in these related conceptual spaces and a substantial amount of the overall learning space is engaged in the group discussion. These results have implications for understanding the affordances of problems and providing another lens on how learning unfolds in a PBL problem. It also provides another means for evaluation of learning and assessment of discursive productivity in PBL groups.

Barrows’ Integration of Cognitive and Clinical Psychology in PBL Tutor Guidelines

Kareen McCaughan Dr. — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:31:35 PDT

Scholars have noted PBL is consistent with John Dewey’s educational theories and with constructivist philosophies. This paper explores the similarities between the assumptions within Howard Barrows’ principles for the PBL tutor’s actions with Dewey’s theories that address teacher behaviors and with Carl Rogers’s conceptual frameworks that support the therapeutic behaviors of the client-centered therapist. In doing so it recognizes Barrows’ integration of the educational and cognitive psychology concepts of two psychologists who have influenced the psychology of education and provides an additional conceptual and theoretical anchor for PBL tutor facilitation skills.

Guest Editors’ Introduction

Cindy E. Hmelo-Silver et al. — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:31:31 PDT

Editor's Introduction

Michael M. Grant — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:31:28 PDT

Mentorship Modes: Strategies for Influencing Interactive Learners

Brad Gyori — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 12:36:44 PST

In the age of the Internet, students are clamoring for immersive and participatory learning experiences, but how can teachers share autonomy without losing control of their classrooms? In an effort to address this important question, this article suggests three mentorship modes that educators can employ in order to effectively engage with today’s interactive learners. Lecture-based instruction is a single mode form of teaching in which information is disseminated by a lone authority-figure. In contrast, learning-centered mentorship is a three-mode process in which autonomy is shared and authority flows in multiple directions at once: bottom-up (modeling), laterally (collaborating), and top-down (organizing and supervising). This work draws on research and theories related to student-centered pedagogy, as well as the trial and error experimentation of the author and interviews with successful participatory educators working at Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy in Chicago, a school devoted almost exclusively to problem-based and project-based learning.

Beyond Beliefs: Teachers Adapting Problem-based Learning to Preexisting Systems of Practice

John L. Pecore — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 12:21:36 PDT

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a constructivist method of instruction aligned with the science educational reform movement to increase scientific literacy for all Americans. As such, PBL instruction is an increasingly popular topic for professional development workshops offered to teachers in secondary learning environments. This research presents a case study of four teachers’ alignment of classroom practice with constructivist principles after participating in a one-week PBL workshop. Teachers assimilated PBL instruction into their current system of teaching; therefore, despite congruent beliefs, those teachers without a constructivist system of practice taught the PBL method with less alignment to constructivist principles. This discrepancy between beliefs and practice could be addressed by helping PBL workshop participants contemplate how components of PBL encourage reform-based constructivist practices and by assisting teachers with modifying preexisting routines to better assimilate PBL instruction.

Problem-based and Project-based Learning in Engineering and Medicine: Determinants of Students’ Engagement and Persistance

Denis Bédard et al. — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:01:24 PDT

This paper presents results of a study conducted with undergraduate students involved in either problem- or project-based curricula (Medicine and Engineering, respectively) at the Université de Sherbrooke, Canada. The objective of the present research was to measure the impact of these innovative curricula on students’ engagement and persistence in higher education. Our research question was: What determinants better predict students’ engagement and persistence in innovative curricula such as PBL? Nine variables were examined as potential predictors of both factors (engagement and persistence). Results showed a variation in variables predicting engagement and persistence, with the most significant predictor being stress related.

Call for Papers—Special Issue Spring 2014

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 09:16:43 PDT

Currently, there is a major debate regarding the most effective methods for providing K-12 students with the educational experiences they need to succeed in the 21st century. Recent definitions of high quality teachers state that, in addition to possessing both content and pedagogical knowledge, they need the ability to facilitate more innovative instructional strategies that benefit from the use of new technology tools. Problem-based learning (PBL), as well as its close relatives (project-based learning, case-based learning, inquiry learning, etc.), represent widely recommended best practices in which effective technology integration can make a tangible difference. This special issue invites research papers that focus on effective uses of technology to support both pre-service and practicing teachers in implementing PBL best practices in their current and future classrooms.

Book Review: Problem-Based Learning in Clinical Education: The Next Generation

Kun Huang — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 09:16:41 PDT

Bridges, S., McGrath, C., & Whitehill, T.L. (Eds.). (2012). Problem-based learning in clinical education: The next generation. New York: Springer. 251pp. ISBN 978-94-007-2514-0, $139.00 (hardcover)

A Pilot Study to Evaluate the Introduction of an Interprofessional Problem-based Learning Module

Tara Cusack et al. — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 09:16:40 PDT

Patient care is complex and demands that health professionals work together effectively. Interprofessional education (IPE) encourages collaboration by educating students from different professions together. This study examined the effectiveness of IPE in terms of changing students’ perceptions of teamwork, professional identity, role, competency and autonomy, and the need for interdisciplinary co-operation. Two multidisciplinary cohorts of health science students (n=51 and n=48) elected to participate in a problem-based learning module (PBL). The module included problems addressing areas of professional identity and cases requiring a multidisciplinary team approach. Evaluation was undertaken using the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) and the Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IPES). Regarding the RIPLS, both cohorts reported significant (p<0.05) improvements in their perceptions of teamwork, collaboration, and positive professional identity. Regarding the IEPS students’ perceptions of professional competency and autonomy improved significantly (p<0.05) in both cohorts. An IPE module delivered using PBL appears valuable for professional development.