Re: Problem Based Learning

Timothy Koschmann (tkoschmann who-is-at acm.org)
Thu, 27 May 1999 16:12:05 -0500

>Nate brings up the issue of the transformation of relationships and I believe
>identities in the context of Problem Based Learning. I would argue that
>insofar as student problem solving efforts remain contextualized by
>students as
>'assignments' that have the teacher as the primary audience (and perhaps
>students within the class as a secondary audience), there's quite a bit of
>truth to that claim.

Bill, in the implementation of PBL with which I am most familiar (the PBL
track offered in our medical school), the 'problem' is a just a vehicle for
having a particular kind of discussion. It is not an 'assignment' in any
sense of the word that maps back to traditional models of instruction. The
problem solving work is always done collaboratively. When students do
self-directed study outside of meetings, it is on aspects of the case
(Learning Issues) that they selected and that they believe are important to
their understanding of the case.

When students first come into this curriculum they often struggle with this
for a while. The sum of their experience of school up to this point in
their career would suggest to them that this idea that they are truly
responsible for their own learning must be some form of a hoax. After a
few weeks, however, they realize that it's for real and they take their
responsibility very seriously. Were a faculty member attempt to tell them
what they needed to learn, they would (and do) protest this as a violation
of the model under which we have all agreed to operate.

>But there's been a distinction drawn by some researchers between project-based
>learning and problem-based learning (e.g., Blumenfeld et al., 1991). Projects
>have as their aim the production of some public artifact that has an audience
>that links the classroom to some activity setting outside it. Done
>successfully, projects have the potential to transform relationships in
>several
>ways. For example, for teachers, doing a project and having student work
>displayed either in the school or at some public event is a political event
>within schools, in some cases bringing some extra cache or prestige to the
>teacher who shares student work with a broader audience or (where support is
>not so strong) signifies risk and resistance to a prevailing school culture.
>Students, for their part, may construct the activity in different ways than
>they typically do in school, not as an 'assignment' but as something else
>altogether.

In at least one medical school that I know of, the cases studied by the PBL
tutorial groups are actual patients who have presented themselves for
services in the clinic associated with the school. I'm not really sure what
the distinction is between project-based learning and problem-based
learning, because both terms are used in wildly different ways. I don't
think the distinction should be based on the authenticity of the problems
for the learner (and the world at large).
---Tim