Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

ENGINEERING: ISSUES CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENTPBL as an Innovative ApproachIn the past decades, the trend away from traditional lecturecentredto more student-centred learning has led to pedagogicalinnovations with the employment of diverse approachessuch as ‘discovery learning’, ‘experiential learning’, ‘case basedlearning’, ‘active learning’, ‘inquiry-based learning’, ‘scenariobased learning’ and so on. Among all these innovations, ProblemBased Learning (PBL) has been increasingly well recognizedas an effective and efficient way of educational change in thatit involves not only change of curricula but, more importantly,the fundamental understanding of teaching and learning at aphilosophical level.The roots for PBL derive from different resources that are basedon a pragmatic approach of educational innovation. ProblemBased Learning is primarily an approach to learning where thecurricula are designed with the problem scenarios as central tostudent learning in each component of the curriculum (Salvin-Baden 2007). 27 In late 1960s, McMaster University in Canadaand Maastricht University in the Netherlands implementedone kind of PBL, which is based on the idea that students shouldwork on case based problems in study groups but fulfil assignmentand examination individually. This kind of practice waswell proved to be effective in early research work (Barrows andTamblyn, 1980) 28 and therefore became widely used in healthscience and medicine education. Since the beginning of 1970s,problem-oriented and project-organized learning methodswere employed in two newly established institutions (RoskildeUniversity and Aalborg University (AAU)) in Denmark. Studentswork in teams on common projects based on problemsthat were formulated by students together with teaching staff,and afterwards go through examinations as teams.Along with a widespread use of PBL, the concept becomesincreasingly broadly defined. The abbreviation PBL can refer to‘Problem Based Learning’, ‘Project Based Learning’ or ‘Problemand Project Based Learning’. The practices of PBL differ frominstitution to institution and from country to country. Thescale of implementation also remains diverse, from a lecturelevel to an integrated part of the curriculum, or as a completecurriculum system.The effect of PBLIt remains challenging to conduct comparative studies on students’learning between innovative environments such as PBLand the traditional lecture based learning environment due tothe bias of developing tools and due to the practicality. Never-Dimensions of PBLBased on the history of learning theories, and the pedagogic experiencesfrom the pioneer institutions that have implemented PBLsince the late 1960s, learning principles of PBL can be summarizedfrom three dimensions (Graaff and Kolmos, 2003):The learning approach as PBL means that learning is organizedaround problems and will be carried through in projects. It is a centralprinciple for the development of motivation. A problem makesup the starting point for the learning processes, places learning incontext, and base learning on the learner’s experience. The fact thatit is also project based means that it is a unique task involving morecomplex and situated problem analyses and problem-solving.The contents approach concerns, especially, interdisciplinary learning,which may span across traditional subject-related boundariesand methods. Exemplary practice in the sense that learning outcomeis exemplary to the overall objectives and support the relationbetween theory and practice by the fact that the learning processinvolves an analytical approach using theory in the analysis of problemsand problem-solving methods.The collaborative approach is team-based learning. The team learningaspect underpins the learning process as a social act where learningtakes place through dialogue and communication. Furthermore,the students are not only learning from each other, they also learn toshare knowledge and organize the process of collaborative learning.The social approach also covers the concept of participant-directedlearning, which indicates a collective ownership of the learningprocess and especially the formulation of the problem.Graaff, Erik de and Kolmos, Anette. 2003. Characteristics of Problem-Based Learning.International Journal of Engineering Education, Vol.17, No.5.theless, in the Danish context, different evaluations have beenconducted from the perspective of workplace.National report from the Danish government board of job marketin 2002 (Kandidat, 2002) 29 documents that 59 per cent ofthe private employers prefer candidates from AAU over thosefrom other engineering universities because AAU graduatesproved to have better skills in team work, innovation, projectmanagement, and acquiring new knowledge. In 2004, a surveyconducted by Danish Industry (Ingeriøren, 2004) 30 among 125of the 500 engineering companies evaluated the performanceof young engineers in their workplace. The results (Figure 1)show that graduates from AAU and from another traditionaluniversity have no significant differences in professional knowledgeand skills, however, AAU graduates have a visibly betterperformance in skills of project and people management, communication,innovation, knowledge of business and life.27 Savin-Baden, M. 2007. Challenging Models and Perspectives of Problem-Based Learning.Management of Change: Implementation of Problem-Based and Project-BasedLearning in Engineering, E. de Graaff and A. Kolmos, (eds.), SENSE Publisher, Rotterdam.pp. 9–30.28 Barrows, H. and Tamblyn, R. 1980. Problem-Based Learning: An Approach to MedicalEducation, Springer, New YorkIn the international context, the effectiveness of PBL has beendocumented from two perspectives: students’ learning and29 Kandidat – og Aftagerundersøgelsen 2002. Go to: http://www.cand.auc.dk or http://www.ruc.dk/kandidat30 Aalborg – Kandidaters Tekniske Vidern er I Top, Ingeriøren, March 3, 2004338