Problem based learning

Photo by Cyrano82 on Deviant Art

Over the course of the next few posts, I'm responding directly and more expansively to some of the questions posted during my live webinar for EDEN. For those who are not familiar with EDEN, it's a large international organisation dedicated to the promotion of distance education and e-learning. It has its roots in Europe, but its scope is truly international, with members from many other countries across the globe. During the pandemic crisis, EDEN has instigated a number of live webinars in which specialist academics are invited to present their thoughts on a variety of technology supported learning topics. Mine, which can be seen again on YouTube was called 'Face to face at a distance: Building communities of learning online.'

Below is my response to one of the questions that arose during my presentation:

Should we pay more attention to defining paths for acquiring skills rather than worrying about content, for example, by placing a great emphasis on project-based learning (PBL)?

A slight correction here: During my webinar I mentioned PBL in the context of Problem Based Learning and offered an example of how I had used it online with Masters students. The question clearly has interpreted PBL as Project Based Learning, which is only a part of the story. PBL can also work beyond projects too, and when it is applied appropriately, it can support skills learning, knowledge development and a whole lot more. 

One of the examples I mentioned required Masters students to solve an ill-structured problem (where some of the parameters are missing) by examining a problem space, discover appropriate reading and research around the theme, and then formulate a solution. Essentially, ill-structured problems have no single correct answer.

Because the students worked in several sectors of education (primary, secondary, tertiary as well as learning and development and training) they naturally drew upon their own previous experience and knowledge to complete their task. They arrived at their solutions from their own perspectives, and the solutions were diverse and unique. It was only when the students posted their solutions to the online forum that they were able to see each other's ideas and perspectives. This was quite revealing, because some of the solutions differed vastly from each other, as would be expected from the diverse backgrounds. A valuable discussion always ensued, where each student defended their own solution against those of others. Every solution had some merits, but also some challenges. An expert solution was also presented, so that students could see a further dimension. Using the problem as the base for their discussions, students were able to gain a number of perspectives and consider several alternative views they would not have thought of without the online learning community. This is a classic example of paragogy - where everyone knows something, but no-one knows everything (not even the expert). Through discursive interaction across the platform, students were able to learn more together than they could on their own. 

Ultimately, I had no need to consider or plan a lot of content for the students. Just the bare minimum of stimulus materials was required, along with the presentation of the messy problem. The students did the rest, motivated to analyse, research, devise and then present their solution. The learning was in the struggle to understand, and then in the act of defending their decisions. In this way they were able to define their own pathways to their learning, and develop their academic skills accordingly.

Problem Based Learning by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Posted by Steve Wheeler from Learning with e's