Problem-based learning

Source principale : http://sll.stanford.edu/pubs/jeepark/pblsite

Introduction

Problem-based Learning (PBL) has become popular because of its apparent benefits to student learning. Students engage in authentic experiences which require them to have and access all three forms of knowledge. PBL's are inherently social and collaborative in methodology and teach students essential "soft skills" as well as domain specific content and skills. Through PBL, students learn:

• Problem-solving skills
• Self-directed learning skills
• Ability to find and use appropriate resources
• Critical thinking
• Measurable knowledge base
• Performance ability
• Social and ethical skills
• Self-sufficient and self-motivated
• Facility with computer
• Leadership skills
• Ability to work on a team
• Communication skills
• Proactive thinking
• Congruence with workplace skills

What is PBL?

A Little Historical Background

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) can be thought of as a combination of cognitive and social constructivist theories, as developed by Piaget and Vygotsky, respectively. PBL is a curriculum development and delivery system that recognizes the need to develop problem solving skills as well as the necessity of helping students to acquire necessary knowledge and skills. The first application of PBL, and perhaps the most strict and pure form of PBL, was in medical schools which rigorously test the knowledge base of graduates. Medical professionals need to keep up with new information in their field, and the skill of life-long learning is particularly important for them. Hence, PBL was thought to be well suited for this area. Many medical and professional schools, as well as undergraduate and graduate programs use PBL in some form, at varying capacities internationally. (see Schools that practice PBL). There are several organizations that provide support for teachers and students of PBL and others that research PBL and related topics. More information about these organizations can be found in Resources, PBL Organizations, and Ways to learn PBL methods.

Overview and Characteristics

1. Use of real world problems - problems are relevant and contextual. It is in the process of struggling with actual problems that students learn content and critical thinking skills.
2. Reliance on problems to drive the curriculum - the problems do not test skills; they assist in development of the skills themselves.
3. The problems are truly ill-structured - there is not meant to be one solution, and as new information is gathered in a reiterative process, perception of the problem, and thus the solution, changes.
4. PBL is learner-centered - learners are progressively given more responsibility for their education and become increasingly independent of the teacher for their education.
5. PBL produces independent, life-long learners - students continue to learn on their own in life and in their careers.

(1-3 Adapted from Stepien & Gallagher 1993; Barrows, 1985 // 4 & 5 : From Problem Based Learning Initiative)

Versions of PBL

Edwin Bridges (1992) suggests that there are two versions of PBL that have been implemented in the classroom: Problem Stimulated PBL and Student Centered PBL.

Problem Stimulated PBL (PS PBL)

PS PBL uses role relevant problems in order to introduce and learn new knowledge. The Prospective Principals Program at Stanford University's School of Education employs PS PBL in its curriculum.

PS PBL emphasizes 3 major goals:

1. development of domain-specific skills
2. development of problem-solving skills
3. acquisition of domain-specific knowledge

The PS PBL Process

1. Students receive the following learning materials:
   1. the problem ;
   2. a list of objectives that the student is expected to master while working on the problem ;
   3. a reference list of materials that pertain to the basic objectives ;
   4. questions that focus on important concepts and applications of the knowledge base.
2. Students work in teams to complete the project, resolve the problem, and accomplish the learning objectives.
   1. each student has a particular role in the team - leader, facilitator, recorder, or team member
   2. time allotted to each project is fixed
   3. the team schedules its own activities and decides how to use the allotted time
3. Student performance is evaluated by instructors, peers, and self using questionnaires, interviews, observation, and other assessment methods.

Throughout the process, instructors serve as resources to the teams and provide guidance and direction if the team asks for it or becomes stymied in the project.

Student Centered PBL (SC PBL)

SC PBL is similar to PS PBL in some aspects. SC PBL has the same goals as PS PBL, but includes one more: fostering life-long learning skills. Physicians are one group of professionals who are required to stay current with new developments in their fields. The skills of a life-long learner are particularly important for this group. Hence, several medical schools employ student centered PBL.

The SC PBL Process

1. Students receive the problem situation.
2. Students work on the problem in project teams.
3. Students are evaluated in multiple ways by instructors, peers, and self.

The process appears to be similar to that of PS PBL, but there are significant differences in each step, which are driven by the goal of fostering life-long learning skills. The major differences are in student responsbilities. In SC PBL:

• students identify the learning issues they wish to explore;
• students determine the content to be mastered;
• students determine and locate the resources to be used.

In short, students have self-defined learning issues. As is the case with PS PBL, students decide how to appropriately use the newly acquired information and knowledge in order to solve the problem at hand.

Why use PBL?

Note : tous les références de ce § sont citées par Bridges 1992 je pense

There are several reasons for using PBL and many of them have resulted from the findings of research (Bridges,1992).

1. Students retain little of what they learn when taught in a traditional lecture format (Bok 1989).
2. Students often do not appropriately use the knowledge they have learned (Schmidt 1983).
3. Since students forget much of what is learned or use their knowledge appropriately, instructors should create conditions that optimize retrieval and appropriate use of the knowledge in future professional practice.
4. PBL creates the three conditions that information theory links to subsequent retrieval and appropriate use of new information (Schmidt 1983):
   1. activation of prior knowledge - students apply knowledge to understand new information.
   2. similarity of contexts in which information is learned and later applied - research shows that knowledge is much more likely to be remembered or recalled in context in which it was originally learned (Godden and Baddeley 1975). PBL provides problems within context that closely resemble future professional problems.
   3. opportunity to elaborate on information that is learned during the problem-solving process - elaborations provide redundancy in memory structure, reduces forgetting, and facilitates retrieval. Elaboration occurs in discussion with peers, peer-teaching, exchanging views, and preparing essays about what students have learned during the problem-solving process.

Summary of Psychological Basis of PBL

Goals and Objectives of PBL	Psychological Basis
Foster problem-solving skills in students	No evidence to date that one curriculum over another enhances students' problem-solving skills independent of acquisition of knowledge.
Enhance acquisition, retention, and use of knowledge. Improve integration of basic and clinical sciences.	Activation of prior knowledge facilitates the subsequent processing of new information. Small-group discussions can activate relevant prior knowledge. Elaboration of knowledge at the time of learning enhances subsequent retreival. Discussion, note-taking, answering questions, or using the knowledge to understand a problem are all forms of elaboration. Matching context facilitates recall. Martensen and colleagues found that students in a PBL course were significantly better at long-term recall than non-PBL students. Eisenstaedt study showed that immediate knowledge of students in PBL course was lower, but after two years, the difference between the two groups disappeared. Tans and colleagues study showed PBL induces students to retain knowledge longer than it is retained by students taught under conventional conditions. PBL students process information learned more extensively. Schmidt and associates found that students who discussed relevant problems recalled significantly more information from text than students who discussed irrelevant problems. This suggests that problem discussion activates prior knowledge which is elaborated upon and used for comprehension of new information.
Transfer of Principles and Concepts	Without specific hints, usually less than half the individuals in an experiment recognize the similarity between a new problem situation and one they have just read and recalled. In order for transfer to occur, people must be processing the information similarly to the way they will process it when they approach a new problem. Needham and Begg study compared a group who were asked to read and remember a problem and its solution with a group who tried to solve the problem and then given the solution. The two groups were then given problems that illustrated the same problem in contexts different from the original one. The study showed that those who were asked to solve the prototype problem and received feedback about the problem typically transferred the concept to a new problem nearly 90% of the time versus about 60% for those who were simply asked to memorize the problem and the solution. The study suggests that any advance organizer detracts from transfer and that feedback was essential in order for successful transfer. For successful transfer, it appears that (1) the problem must be approached without much foreknowledge of the domain of the solution or underlying principle; and (2) the problem solver must receive corrective feedback about the solution immediately upon completion.
Integration of basic and clinical knowledge	Patel and colleagues studied students in a PBL and conventional curriculum. Students solved a clinical problem and then integrated three passages of relevant basic science knowledge into their explanations of the problem. PBL students offered more explanations and were able to integrate basic science knowledge and clinical knowledge, but many hypotheses were incorrect. Boshuizen and Schmidt study compared PBL and conventional curriculum students' ability to explain a specific medical condition and how a specific disease could be related. The notable difference was in the approach students took. PBL students appeared to take an analytical approach, while conventional curriculum students tended toward a more memory-based approach.
Enhance self-directed learning	Blumberg and Michael showed that studetns in a PBL track borrowed more material from the library than students in a conventional curriculum and more PBL students and also acquired more clerkships. There is not conclusive evidence that shows that PBL produces physicians who are better able to keep up with literature
Enhance intrinsic interest and motivation to learn	De Volder and colleagues found that students who discussed a problem seemed more interested in the problem and studying related literature. The study suggests that PBL involves students more extensively in the subject matter. However, there is no evidence that intrinsic interest in a topic significantly impacts performance related to the topic.

What does PBL look like in the classroom?

There are several models of how PBL works in the classroom. All of them agree that in a PBL curriculum,

1. students work through a series of problems designed to:

• be authentic (i.e. address real-world concerns)
• target defined areas of the curriculum
• be "ill-structured" - they must be defined and analyzed through inquiry from a minimum of presenting information
• approximate the real world, so that students find themselves actually engaged in the problem and not just observers of it;

1. the role of the instructor changes from a "sage on the stage" to a "guide on the side";
2. students work collaboratively in small groups toward the problem's resolution.

Barrows (1985) proposes the following model of the PBL process :

Process	Purpose
Students read and address problem, without background preparation.	Teaches students to encode and organize information in useful ways. Allows students to find what they know and what they don¹t know. Misconceptions can be corrected in discussion of the problem. Mimics the real life context they will face as doctors.
Students discuss and analyze problem using prior knowledge and resources available. Tutor poses questions: ie. Do you need more information? Are you sure of the facts or will a review be helpful? Do you think more information on this area would be helpful? Tutors encourage hypotheses are grounded in science.	Development of cognitive skills for problem-solving process Development of self-monitoring skills to identify the learning needs Development of habitual student-initiated questioning
Students decide what they need to know and where they might best find the information. They decide which resources to use (people, published papers, etc.).	Self-directed study
Students revisit problem with new information and knowledge acquired during self-study. Students critique learning resources used. Group decides appropriate hypotheses and critiques prior performance.	New organization of information to problem-solve. Self-assessment Peer-assessment
Students should think about how what they learned has added to their understanding	Reflection Self-assessment

Schmidt and Moust describe the main frame of the process of PBL as iterative and cyclical in nature.

1. Students approach the problem, without any prior background research.
2. In the small group tutorial, they analyze the problem based on prior-knowledge, elaborate on the knowledge through discussion, develop new knowledge structures and formulate their own learning objectives.
3. Students proceed to a period of self-directed study. This helps them to develop, fine-tune, and restructure the existing knowledge structure.
4. Students then return to the small group tutorial, where they integrate and apply the knowledge they gained during self-directed study in order to problem-solve.

Students will then return to the first step and continue to cycle until the problem is fully addressed.

How do groups function in PBL?

Teams are responsible for scheduling their own activities and deciding how to use their time to solve the problem and master the learning objectives. Depending on the version of PBL, the teams have more or less responsibilty for determining learning issues and locating resource materials required to solve the problem. Groups usually consist of 5 to 7 students. Each member of the group maintains a particular role throughout the duration of the project. The four possible roles are:

1. project leader - proposes meeting agendas, suggests division of labor, and develops the overall project plan.
2. facilitator - describes the process to be followed during the steps of the project plan, determines appropriate time to proceed in plan, and suggests adjustments to the plan as needed.
3. recorder - takes group notes of each meeting.
4. team member - takes individual notes, participates in discussion, and reviews resource materials.

Other PBL models include a mentor or tutor in the group. This is often a faculty member, but another student sometimes functions in this role. Research is mixed as to the domain-specific expertise required of the mentor. It is unclear whether subject expertise is necessary in order to be an effective tutor.

==What does the individual do in PBL?== (Schmidt & Moust, 1998)

The individual student in PBL has an active role in learning. PBL requires that students have responsibility for their own learning by identifying their learning issues and needs. According to Schmidt and Moust, the student progresses through a series of steps, "The Seven Jump", during the PBL process.

1. Clarify unknown terms and concepts in the problem description.
2. Define the problem(s). List the phenomena or events to be explained.
3. Analyze the problem(s). Step 1. Brainstorm. Try to produce as many different explanations for the phenomena as you think of. Use prior knowledge and common sense.

[student outcomes - activation of prior knowledge, elaboration, restructuring of information, organization of information, intrinsic motivation] 

1. Analyze the problem(s). Step 2. Discuss. Criticize the explanations proposed and try to produce a coherent description of the processes that, according to what you think, underlie the phenomena or events.
2. Formulate learning issues for self-directed learning.
3. Fill in gaps in your knowledge through self-study.
4. Share your findings with your group and try to integrate the knowledge acquired into a comprehensive explanation for the phenomena or events. Check whether you know enough now.

[student outcomes - restructuring, applying, problem solving]

The NASA sponsored project, The Classroom of the Future, employs PBL in its curriculum. The project offers classroom ready activities for teachers to use at various grade levels. The project provides guidance for both teachers and students in order to help them adjust to and utilize the PBL curriculum.

In the guide for students, the project suggests similar problem-solving steps:

1. Read and analyze the problem scenario.
2. List what is known.
3. Develop a problem statement describing what the group is trying to solve, produce, respond to, or find out.
4. List what the group needs to find out.
5. List possible actions.
6. Analyze information.
7. Present findings

Individual Learning Issues

An important objective of PBL is that students become responsible for their own learning and for what they will actually research. Consequently, throughout the PBL process, as students define and analyze the problem, they generate "learning issues." Learning issues are questions generated by the students that need to be answered in order to solve the problem. When the problem has been developed to the point that further analysis and understanding is inhibited by their lack of knowledge, the students undertake their self-directed learning, guided by the "Learning Issues" and motivated by the actions they anticipate taking. The design of the problem and questioning by the teacher/tutor will lead students to identify learning issues relevant to the curriculum content objectives. Some versions of PBL provide some learning issues for students in the form of objectives. In other versions of PBL, students are totally responsible for generating their learning needs.

What is the role of the instructor in PBL?

All of the literature reviewed in the creation of this site is unanimous about one aspect of PBL: the role of the instructor. In PBL, the instructor serves as a resource to the student teams. The instructor is frequently acts as a mentor or tutor to the group. The instructor reliquenshes the role of the dispenser of information. The instructor is most active in planning the PBL the content and sequence of projects, providing immediate feedback on student work and discussion, and evaluating students. In the classroom, teachers should act as metacognitive coaches, serving as models, thinking aloud with students and practicing behavior they want their students to use (Stepien and Gallagher, 1993). Teachers coax and prompt students to use questions such as "What is going on here? What do we need to know more about? What did we do during the problem that was effective?" and take on responsibility for the problem. Over a period of time, students become self-directed learners, teachers then fade (Stepien and Gallagher, 1993). Research suggests that students benefit from immediate feedback from instructors so that misconceptions can be cleared promptly (Norman and Schmidt, 1992). It is the job of the instructor to be aware of the progress and conversations within the groups so that students continue on fruitful paths.

Changes to be addressed by the Instructor

The instructor must also prepare and adjust to the changes that accompany the implementation of PBL. In addition to the shift in the role of the instructor, there is also a change in the structure of class time. Some authors (Schmidt, Bridges, Barrows) strongly suggest that the instructor provide unstructured time in the class in order for students to assemble in their teams, work with resources, contact and meet with faculty members who may be helpful to their project, and accomplish other tasks necessary in the resolution of the problem. Some research (Gijselaers and Schmidt, 1992) has shown that there is a point of diminishing returns. After a certain number of hours per week, the amount of teacher-centered time in class detracts from students' self-study time. The instructor may also need to address the perceived delay in the student performance that often occurs. Research shows that PBL students may not acheive as much, initially with the implementation of PBL (Schmidt, et. al, 1996). However, PBL students retain more than their traditionally educated counterparts and learn life-long, self-directed learning skills that other students may not.

How to do PBL

A practical guide to Problem Based Learning

The Teacher Pages of NASA's Classroom of the Future provides an informative and practical way to use PBL in the classroom. Savery and Duffy (In Press), discuss issues for instructional design in constructivist environments: cAnchor all learning activities to a larger task or problem.

• Support the learner in developing ownership for the overall problem or task.
• Design an authentic task.
• Design the task and the learning environment to reflect the complexity of the environment students should be able to function in at the end of learning.
• Give the learner ownership of the process used to develop a solution.
• Design the learning environment to support and challenge learners' thinking.
• Encourage testing ideas against alternative views and alternative contexts.
• Provide opportunity for support and reflection on both the content learned and the learning process.

Pre-PBL Throughts for Instructors

Barrows (How to Design a Problem Based Curriculum for the Pre-Clinical Year, 1985) also provides a suggested list of objectives for a course and recommends that both faculty and students are provided with the list at the start of the course. Although Barrows specialized in the application of PBL in medical education, his ideas can be generalized to other laboratory sciences. Here are his suggested objectives: By the end of the course, the student should be able to demonstrate capabilities in the following areas:

Analytical Reasoning Skills

• Generate several hypotheses
• Appropriate use of hypothesis-oriented inquiry-strategy
• Problem synthesis
• New hypothesis or new inquiry approach
• Protocol-oriented or routine inquiry
• Appropriate laboratory or diagnostic tests
• Final working hypothesis
• Management plan to correct the problem

Clinical or Laboratory skills Self-assessment and self-study skills

• Assess adequacy of knowledge and reasoning skills in evaluating problems presented
• List information that needs to be reviewed or learned

Knowledge

• List of knowledge that needs to be learned and appropriately applied in analysis of problems

Examples of PBL Problems

university level

Biology : http://www.udel.edu/pbl/curric/bisc207prob.html

High School Level

History : http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/bubbles/

Ancient World : http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/ancientworld/index.html

Research on PBL

http://sll.stanford.edu/pubs/jeepark/pblsite/research.htm

References

Barrows, H.S. (1985). How to Design a Problem-based Curriculum for the Preclinical Years. New-York : Springer

Bridges, E. M. (1992). Problem based learning for administrators. Eugene, OR: ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 347 617)

Problem Based Learning Initiative at Southern Illinois Institute : http://www.pbli.org/pbl/pbl1.htm

Schmidt H.G. & Moust J.H.C. (1998). Processes that Shape Small-Group Tutorial Learning: A Review of Research. Paper presented at Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association.

Stepien, W.J. and Gallagher, S.A. 1993. "Problem-based Learning: As Authentic as it Gets." Educational Leadership. 50(7) 25-8