1st Edition

New Approaches to Problem-based Learning Revitalising Your Practice in Higher Education

By Terry Barrett, Sarah Moore Copyright 2011
    314 Pages
    by Routledge

    310 Pages
    by Routledge

    Problem-based learning (PBL) is a pedagogical approach that has the capacity to create vibrant and active learning environments in higher education. However, both experienced PBL practitioners and those new to PBL often find themselves looking for guidance on how to engage and energise a PBL curriculum. New Approaches to Problem-based Learning: Revitalising your Practice in Higher Education provides that guidance from a range of different, complementary perspectives.

    Leading practitioners in the field as well as new voices in PBL teaching and learning have collaborated to produce this text. Each chapter provides practical and experienced accounts of issues and ideas for PBL, as well as a strong theoretical and evidence base. Whether you are an experienced PBL practitioner, or new to the processes and principles of PBL, this book will help you to find ways of revitalising and enriching your practice and of enhancing the learning experience in a range of higher education contexts.

    Introduction

    Terry Barrett and Sarah Moore

    This chapter will discuss the purpose and audience of the book. The emphasis on providing PBL practitioners with new and revitalizing concepts, transferable principles and practice examples in order to develop PBL initiatives will be explored.

    SECTION 1 STAKEHOLDER PERSPECTIVES SHAPING PBL INITIATIVES

    Section Overview Sarah Moore and Terry Barrett

     

    CHAPTER 1: DESIGNING PROBLEMS AND TRIGGERS IN DIFFERENT MEDIA: CHALLENGING ALL STUDENTS

    Terry Barrett, Diane Cashman and Sarah Moore

    High quality problems and triggers are a key success factor in developing PBL initiatives. This chapter will discuss the rationale for designing triggers in different media in order to develop and challenge all students. It will explore key principles in designing quality triggers using accessible technologies.

     

    CHAPTER 2: STUDENTS AS ESSENTIAL PARTNERS

    Karen O’Rourke, Louise Goldring and Marcia Ody

    This chapter focuses on the importance of treating students as primary and key stakeholders in the PBL process.

     

    CHAPTER 3: MAKING STRONG LEARNING CONNECTIONS: STUDENTS INVOLVEMENT IN IMPROVING THE INTERCONNECTIONS OF CONCEPTS IN A PBL MODULE

    Geraldine O’Neill and Woei Hung

    This chapter focuses on the issue of the interrelationship of concepts in a PBL module, i.e. landscaping. It contributes to both the theoretical and practical understanding of connecting concepts in problem-based learning by drawing on Hung’s theoretical 3C3R model and the action research process of improving a PBL module.

    CHAPTER 4: WRITING PROBLEMS WITH CLINICIANS AND OTHER PROFESSIONALS

    Marie Stanton and Majella McCaffery

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    CHAPTER 5: THE SHIFTING FRAME: BRINGING PROBLEMS TO LIFE

    Tatum Langford-Korin and LuAnn Wilkerson

    This chapter focuses on the multiple stakeholders involved in the development of problems for PBL curricula.

    CHAPTER 6: Employers’ Perspectives on Problem-based Learning Initiatives

    Yves Maufettte,, Siobhan Drohan and Jean-Louis Allard

    This chapter focuses on employers’ perspectives of the development of PBL initiatives at different stages.

    CHAPTER 7: NEGOTIATING PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN THE WORKPLACE: EMPLOYEES’ INSIGHTS

    Anna Raija Nummenmaa and Kirsti Karila

    This chapter focuses on employees’ perspectives and the use of problem-based learning in the workplace.

    CHAPTER 8: Evaluating problem-based Learning Initiatives

    Ivan Moore and Sari Poikela

    This chapter considers some of the purposes, principles and practices involved in evaluating innovative or developmental approaches to supporting student learning through Problem Based Learning. Its purpose is to provide some ideas about practical approaches to evaluating PBL practice - some of which can be implemented with minimum effort -

    SECTION 2

    STUDENTS’ USING PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING TO ENHANCE THEIR CAPABILITIES

    Section Overview Sarah Moore and Terry Barrett

     

    CHAPTER 9: Students maximising the potential of the PBL tutorial

    Terry Barrett and Karen O’Rourke

    This chapter focuses on what we can learn about maximizing the potential of the PBL tutorials from listening to how students talked about the tutorial...

     

    CHAPTER 10: Shining the spotlight on students’ information literacy

    Lorna Dodd Evva-Liisa Eskola and Charlotte Silen

    This chapter focuses on the enhancement of students’ skills by developing information literacy as an integral component throughout the entire PBL process. It uses primary research from different international perspectives to examine the impact of PBL on information literacy.

    CHAPTER 11: Students developing as Reflective Learners through PBL

    Marja-Leena Lähteenmäki,and Lars Uhlin

    This chapter discusses a range of transferable principles and practices that encourage reflection in students’ learning processes.

    CHAPTER 12: Learning for a Complex World: experiments in ‘real world’ problem working experiences

    Norman Jackson, Sarah Campbell and Natacha Thomas

    CHAPTER 13: Using assessment to promote student capabilities

    Catharine Pettigrew, Ingrid Scholten and Emma Gleeson

    This chapter focuses on the ways in which assessment in PBL can be used as a specific tool for promoting self-directed learning, problem-solving, group competence and reflective thinking in students.

    CHAPTER 14: THE TRIPLE JUMP ASSESSMENT: ALIGNING LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT

    Ntombifikle Gloria Mtshali and Lyn Middleton

    The first section of this chapter explores how PBL is currently conceptualized and applied across different nursing programs and health care contexts in developing countries, and how it may be used to facilitate the development of transferable core skills required in the dynamic workplace.

    SECTION 3: Capacity Building for sustainable PBL initiatives

    Section Overview Sarah Moore and Terry Barrett

    CHAPTER 15: Planning and building capacity for a major PBL initiative

    Paul Finucane, David Prideaux, Peter McCrorie

    The purpose of this chapter will be to examine the important issues associated with capacity building for the launch of completely new higher medical educational programmes using problem-based learning.

    CHAPTER 16 Designing PBL curricula

    Sari Poikela and Ivan Moore

    The focus of this chapter is to analyse the essential factors of capacity building when negotiating a PBL curricula.

    CHAPTER 17: Empowering tutors: Strategies for INSPIRED AND EFFECTIVE facilitation OF PBL LEARNING

    Charlotte Silen and Deirdre Connolly

    This chapter presents typical tutorial situations and how they have informed the writers’ tutoring practices. The chapter concludes with strategies for encouraging tutor reflection on the development of their facilitation skills.

    Facilitation is conceived of as a process of encouraging negotiation.

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    CHAPTER 18: Using technology to enhance PBL initiatives

    Roisin Donnelly, David Jennings and Timo Portimojarv

    The purpose of the chapter is to encourage PBL practitioners to use information and communication technology more to enhance student learning.

     

    CHAPTER 19: Rethinking supervision of doctorate processses: ProBell research group walking the PBL talk

    Anna Raija Nummenmaa and Merja Alanko-Turunen

    The aim of this chapter is to theoretically conceptualize and dialogically understand the meanings and roles of research and doctorate supervision conceptions for the supervision of these processes.

    CHAPTER 20: EXPLORING PHILOSOPHICAL PRINCIPLES UNDERPINNING PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING

    Terry Barrett and Sarah Moore

    Problem-based learning is a philosophical stance in relation to learning and teaching in higher education. This chapter explores links between philosophical concepts and PBL practice principles.

     

    CHAPTER 21 community building and PBL: PBL WRITERS negotiating this pbl book in collaborative residential writing contexts

    Sarah Moore and Terry Barrett

    This chapter outlines a mechanism for inter-institutional dissemination of ideas relating to problem based learning, as well as showcasing evidence which demonstrated that a writers’ retreat environment can become an integral, professionally supportive dimension for PBL practitioners from all backgrounds and levels.

    Biography

    Terry Barrett is a Lecturer in Education Development at University College Dublin where she works with curriculum development teams to design, implement and research PBL initiatives in a range of disciplines.

    Sarah Moore is Associate Vice President and Professor at the University of Limerick, where she adopts a strategic focus on optimising teaching and learning.

    "These authors have lived, breathed and researched PBL over a long time, so their wisdom in compiling and shaping contributions for this book is likely to benefit many interested readers."--British Journal of Educational Technology