Many people have been asking me about how I run problem-based learning (PBL) in my first-year seminar. I am attaching here a number of documents that I use with my students during a three-week PBL unit.

In order to give an overview of PBL, I have adapted the information below from the following website:

http://www.cidde.pitt.edu/fds/

What Is PBL?

PBL is learning that results from working with problems. Content is introduced in the context of complex, real-world problems rather than in lecture format. Students, working in small groups, study the issues of the problem and strive to create meaningful solutions.

PBL began in the early 1970s at the medical school at McMaster University in Canada and has been used mainly in medical and professional schools. However, in recent years the approach has been incorporated into the sciences and the humanities at universities throughout the world.PBL can be used to teach an entire course or some aspects of a course.

Why Use PBL?

The PBL approach does the following

• Encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning
• Emphasizes critical thinking skills and learning how to learn
• Develops in students the ability to define problems, research and evaluate information, and develop solutions to problems
• Helps students achieve high levels of comprehension and retention
• Develops in students strong reasoning, communication and team-building skills
• Increases the transference of skills and knowledge from the classroom to work
• Increases student motivation
• Assesses learning in ways that demonstrate understanding and not mere acquisition

What Are The Procedures Involved In PBL?

The class is divided into groups of typically five students. Learning is initiated by the presentation of an appropriate problem. The problem can be presented in a mini-lecture to the entire class. Groups of students then brainstorm ideas, identify what they know about the problem (and more important, what they don't know but must learn in order to solve the problem), develop an action plan for research, and discuss topics and concepts researched, eventually coming to some agreement on the best resolution.

What Are The Roles of Those Involved In PBL?

Instructor's Role

Because the amount of direct instruction is reduced, the instructor's role changes from that of lecturer and main disseminator of knowledge to that of facilitator of learning. Instructors must now focus their attention on questioning student logic and beliefs, providing hints to correct erroneous student reasoning, providing resources for student research, and keeping students on task.

Students' Role

The approach requires that students take charge of their learning. This is difficult for students who are used to having instructors lecture to them because they must now define the learning issues of a problem, make decisions required by the problem, do research beyond their textbooks (perhaps outside class time), and propose solutions to problems. In addition, all this must be done cooperatively with their group members. Naturally, students are likely at first to resist this approach to learning.

Group Facilitators

Large classes require additional personnel to act as facilitators to the student groups. These can be graduate teaching assistants or upperclass undergraduates. Group facilitators must be able to do the following:

• Guide and support students as they "learn how to learn"
• Stimulate discussion
• Hone the students' ability to analyze and critique the information they bring to group discussions
• Monitor group process
• Keep students on task
• Know how and where to find information on the learning issues the students identify
• Respond effectively to student behaviors that undermine the group process.

Group facilitators should have some organizational skills, capability in problem solving, and knowledge of group dynamics. In order to develop the necessary skills, group facilitators require some training. Therefore, faculty should be prepared to offer them the necessary training and guidance.

How Are Appropriate Problems Created For PBL?

The most critical aspect of PBL is being able to create suitable problems. The problems must guide students to discover the desired information and learn the important concepts and principles so that course goals and objectives are met. The problems should have all the following qualities

• They should be ill-structured and complex.
• They should not be easily or formulaically solved.
• They should not have "one right" answer.
• They should contain several cues that stimulate discussion and encourage students to search for explanations.
• They should encourage cooperation from all members of the student group in order to be resolved effectively.

When planning problems, instructors should aim to encourage students to apply key elements of their recent learning. Also, problems should relate to one or more of the course objectives. A given problem, however, may generate learning that is rich in interconnections across many topics.

Faculty who use PBL usually write their own problems. Video-clips, articles in the popular press, and research papers in the specific discipline can be used as a basis for a good problem.

How Is PBL Assessed?

Assessment of PBL requires students to demonstrate what they have learned through a product.

Evaluation can be in various forms:

• Individual reports (or group reports) in which students report on the experience
• Student journals in which students reflect on individual learning
• Peer evaluation in which students are asked to rate their group members according to some criterion
• Mini PBL in which individual students are required to analyze a problem, search for and then apply relevant information, and finally propose a solution
• Personal interviews with faculty
• Examination questions

What Are The Typical Problems Reported With PBL?

PBL, however, is not without its drawbacks. The following are some of these drawbacks:

• PBL takes more time to teach the same content.
• PBL sometimes requires additional physical space and equipment.
• The training and supervision of group facilitators place a great demand on faculty time.
• PBL costs more.