Institute for Enterprise

Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

www.leedsmet.ac.uk/enterprise

July 2009

Ground rules

•Work will be divided fairly among group members

•Everyone here today should be encouraged to make a contribution

•Activities should be completed by the agreed deadline

•Difficulties should be addressed sooner rather than later

•Any more….?

What kind of team are you?Exploring ways to work together….

• Create an escutcheon that illustrates your team’s– Skills– Interests– Shared characteristics– Differences– USP

• You will need to explain to us all how your escutcheon is representative of your groupYou have ten minutes to complete this task

Any questions?

‘Personalised’ Ground Rules

As a group, devise a brief set of ground rules that might help you work effectively during this workshop

(5 minutes)

• Transition – Practice in a safe environment– Opportunities for reflection and review– Accommodates different learning styles– Socialises the learning and the learner

• Integration – knowledge, social, cultural

• Lifelong learning – information explosion

• Inter-professional and interdisciplinary approaches

• Links teaching, learning and research

• Employability/professional body requirements

• Develops entrepreneurial mindset

Why introduce PBL? Some drivers....

PBL Curricula

• knowledge problem solution

problem knowledge solution

• Students respond to problems they are likely to encounter as graduates

• Triggers encourage a need to investigate (research)

• Natural way of learning

8 characteristics of PBL courses

• An acknowledgement of the base of experience of the learner• Students take responsibility for their own learning• A crossing of boundaries between disciplines• An intertwining of theory and practice• A focus on the process of knowledge acquisition rather than

the products• A change in staff role from that of instructor to that of

facilitator• A change in focus from staff assessment of outcomes of

learning to student self and peer assessment/evaluation• A focus on communication and interpersonal skills

PBL is morally defensible in that it pays due respect to both student and teacher as persons

with knowledge, understanding, feelings and interests who come together in a shared

educational process.

Margetson, D., The Challenge of Problem-Based Learning,

Boud and Feletti, Eds, (Kogan Page) 1997

Learner-Centred rather than Student- Centred?

The problems….• Must engage students and motivate them

• Relate to the ‘real world’

• Encourage students to make decisions or judgements based on information and facts

• Move students beyond recall of information

• Should encourage collaboration and co-operation

• Open-ended, connected to existing knowledge

• Achieve learning objectives of the course

Possible routes to creating a problem….• Classic works

• Critical incidents

• Real case-histories or patient care-plans

• Present and past controversies

• Application of important concepts to everyday situations or personal situations

• Video-clips, novels, newspaper articles, research papers, cartoons

• Re-write a typical exam question as an open-ended, ‘real-world’ problems

• Work with colleagues to decide the approach and ‘test’ the problems on students

The PBL Process

PBL and Professional Practice

By yourself,

on separate post it notes, write down all the ways you got to the Rose Bowl today from home

Train walk

cycle

bus

As a group, amalgamate your post-its and then think of as many OTHER ways you could have got here and write your ideas down on separate post-it notes

HINT – break the boundaries and be imaginative!

Formula One racing car On the

back of an elephant

swimming

We’re nearly there!

Cluster your post-it notes according to any common characteristics or themes

Identify opposite categories (e.g. fast/slow or fun/boring) and re-sort if necessary

Take any two opposing themes and use them to complete a 2 x 2 matrix

An example

Fast S

low

Cheap Expensive

Intellectual skills

• Evaluation

• Synthesis

• Analysis

• Application

• Manipulation

• Knowledge

Ability to make a judgment of the worth of something

Ability to combine separate elements into a whole

Ability to break a problem into its constituent part and establish the relationships between each one

Ability to apply rephrased knowledge in a novel situation

That which can be recalled

Ability to rephrase knowledge

Developing intellectual skills – Bloom’s Taxonomy

Evaluation

Synthesis

Analysis

Application

Manipulation

Knowledge

Developing intellectual skills – Bloom again

Evaluation

Synthesis

Analysis

Application

Manipulation

Knowledge

HypothesisCreativity

InstinctIntuition

Boring

Challenging

The playground

Role of the PBL tutor/facilitator

• Facilitate the group processes and the learning– Guide lines of enquiry – ask questions, demand

evidence– Support for any difficulties with groups or individuals

• Share the experience

‘Guide on the side’‘Meddler in the middle’!

• Give and receive feedback

‘Alcohol on an Aeroplane’

Recap on your ground rules….do they still stand?

Decide who will make notes for the group/watch the time etc

Information

- what do we already know about this situation?

Ideas/hypotheses- define the situation/problem- what seem to be the causes?

Questions- What do we need to learn/understand before we can progress?

Action Plan

- How will we go about ‘filling the gaps’ in our knowledge?

20 minutes for group work – followed by a 3 minute presentation from each group

Academic skills?

Making the Change to Problem-Based Learning

• Some of the issues raised by students and facilitators

– Tensions with a ‘hybrid’ approach

– Group dynamics

– Absence of familiar frameworks

– Increased workload

– Rigidity of processes

There may be more….

Example - First Year Computer Science• First year team project

– web-enabled database application of their choosing• Aims

– Students active and responsible for their own learning– Engagement, creativity, ambition and motivation– Skills in problem solving, communication, independent learning

and group work• Context and background

– 140 students, 24 tutors– Mixed tutorial groups of 6 + self directed learning– Weekly ‘formal’ tutorial meeting– Activity supported online (VLE)

• Information, discussion, group wikis and moodle

Phase 4: 11 weeks

Build applicationDemos and poster

Group reportIndividual reflection

Computer Science

Phases and what they mean

Phase 3: 6 weeks

World-wide what?Group applicationPresentations and

poster

Phase 2: 3 weeks

Ethics: killer robotGroup presentationSelect framework

Phase 1: 2 weeks Software patents2 teams in debate

Expectations, skills and group ground rules

Phase 0:2 hours

A PBL Approach to Enterprise in the Curriculum

Supporting the development of a positive attitude to innovation, personal change and development

Development, integration and embedding across all subject areas and levels – beyond discrete activities and ‘bolt-on’ models

Underpinned by theory and grounded in practice

Subject knowledge and skills development

Engagement with experts and professionals, developing relationships and forming partnerships

Experiential learning approach – active, student-centred, reflective