A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

268 ❘
Teaching in the disciplines
Enquiry-based learning
Engineering is a practical subject and the engineering degree curriculum has for many
years contained project work where students undertake substantive pieces of work either
individually and/or in groups (see also Chapter 11). In recent years it has been recognised
that students engage better with the student-centred learning which projects provide,
and often develop a deeper approach to learning. It reflects an old adage that students
learn by doing. Consequently there has been an increase in the proportion of the
curriculum delivered through enquiry-based learning.
Approaches to enquiry-based learning include (CEEBL, 2007):
• project-based learning (research-based approach);
• problem-based learning (PBL) (exploration of scenario-driven learning experience);
• investigation-based learning (fieldwork or case study adapted to discipline
context).
Project-based learning provides students with the opportunity to bring together
knowledge-based skills from a number of subject areas and apply them to real-life
problems. It also helps to reinforce existing knowledge and provides a context to the
theory. Engineering is a subject which lends itself well to this type of learning where
projects will typically address authentic, real-world problems (Crawford and Tennant,
2003; Project Squared, 2003).
Projects can operate within hugely diverse contexts and along a broad continuum of
approaches. They may be used by a single lecturer or course team within a department
that mainly uses more traditional methods of teaching, or they may be linked to a
complete restructuring of the learning experience of all students. The choice of type of
project work will depend on the intended learning outcomes, and on whether you are
looking for depth or breadth of knowledge-based skills. Projects may be open or closed;
individual or group; conducted over a day or a year; multidisciplinary; or industry based.
Projects are often well suited to applied topics, where different solutions may have equal
validity. Students will be required to discover new information for themselves, and to use
that knowledge in finding solutions and answers, but students will need support to
become independent learners.
Problem-based learning has been introduced in some engineering departments on the
grounds that for an equivalent investment of staff time, the learning outcomes of students
are improved, as students are better motivated and more independent in their learning
and gain a deeper understanding of the subject (see Case study 4). It is a style of learning
in which the problems act as the context and driving force for learning (Boud and Feletti,
1997). It differs from ‘problem-solving’ in that the problems are encountered before all the
relevant knowledge has been acquired, and solving problems results in the acquisition
of knowledge and problem-solving skills. (In problem-solving, the knowledge acquisition
has usually already taken place and the problems serve as a means to explore or enhance
that knowledge.)