HMEF5043-Evaluation on Various Application of Problem-based Learning (PBL)

INTRODUCTION

Problem-based learning is solving problems that are presented in a context that is

personally relevant or simulates real-world experiences (Understanding Problem-Based
Learning,” NEA Higher Education ADVOCATE, 20(2), 6-7). The problems are complex
and open-ended, present a minimal amount of information, and do not require a single
answer, When students engage in problem solving, they develop critical thinking and
problem solving skills. These elements are present in problem-based learning situations.
1. Learning is student-centered. Students are encouraged to become actively
engaged in the process and become responsible not only for their own learning
but for the learning of others in the group.
2. Learning occurs in collaborative environments. Students work in group of 5 to 10
and build teamwork skills as they try to solve the problems together.
3. Teacher acts as facilitators called “tutors”. Teachers do not lecture, but guide
students in the process of discovery, inquiry, analysis and reporting. Teachers
may be resources if approached by students because of their expertise in the
content but will encourage them to seek verification.
4. Problems are a stimulus for learning and vehicles for the development of
problem-solving skills. Students learn by trying to solve problems with no single
right answer. The problem is posed to the students before concepts and
information that have been presented. The students must find what they know
and what they do not know and identify resources.
Throughout the problem-solving process, teachers monitor progress and evaluate the
effectiveness of the problem and the quality of students’ products and performances.
This essay analyzes three journals related to problem-based learning and analyzes the
ideas and concludes the overall analysis.

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 HMEF5043-Evaluation on Various Application of Problem-based Learning (PBL)

Journal 1

Self-Directed Learning in Problem-Based Learning and its Relationships with Self-

Regulated Learning
Loyens, S., Magda, J., & Rikers, R. (2008). Self-Directed Learning in Problem-Based
Learning and its Relationships with Self-Regulated Learning. Educational Psychology
Review, 20(4), 411-427. doi:10.1007/s10648-008-9082-7

Summary

This study investigated the role of SDL in PBL and examined how SDL relates to
SRL. A review of empirical studies that examined SDL and SRL in PBL environments
was conducted. The first part of this study explained the concept of SDL and how it is
implemented in PBL. In addition, the study aimed to establish conceptual clarity between
SDL and SRL. It is argued that SDL and SRL have similarities with respect to active
engagement, goal-directed behavior, metacognitive skills, and intrinsic motivation. Yet, a
close examination of both concepts led to the conclusion that they cannot be used
synonymously. While SRL is usually considered as a learner characteristic, SDL is both
a learner characteristic and a design feature of the learning environment. Further, SDL
entails more student control over the learning environment and provides a crucial role for
the learner in initiating a learning task.
This review also brought several conclusions to the fore. SDL and SRL are
developmental processes First, the studies showed that SDL and SRL are
developmental processes since college seniors were found to be more self-directed and
self-regulated in several studies. For example, seniors engaged in study activities
beyond the learning issues (van den Hurk et al. 1999). Also, seniors relied less on
external guidance when deciding what to study (Dolmans and Schmidt 1994, 2000).
Students’ reliance on others decreased (Kivela and Kivela 2005) and they became more
certain about the selection of their literature resources (Dahlgren and Dahlgren 2002).
Further, Evensen (2000) ascertained the development of SDL skills during students’ first
semester. With respect to SRL, developmental processes were also observed (Evensen
et al. 2001). The developmental nature implies that SDL and SRL can be learned by
students. However, the studies indicate that this is not an easy process (Evensen et al.

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2001), especially not for younger students since they need to overcome their feelings of
uncertainty. The “self” aspect is crucial Empirical evidence was found for the importance
of the “self” aspect in SDL and SRL. Studies demonstrated the importance of self
generation of learning issues (Verkoeijen et al. 2006) and showed that self-monitoring is
beneficial for academic achievement (van den Hurk 2006). Self-reflection was crucial for
forms of self-regulation (Evensen et al. 2001) and self- Educ Psychol Rev (2008)
20:411–427 423 assessment was performed accurately by high-achieving students
(Langendyk 2006). These findings emphasize the crucial controlling role of the learner
and the actions that he or she initiates and undertakes. Does PBL foster SDL or SRL?
Mixed results .
With respect to the question whether PBL fosters SDL and SRL, mixed results
were found. Some studies gave evidence that PBL fosters SDL (Blumberg 2000; Hmelo
and Lin 2000; Kivela and Kivela 2005) and SRL (Sungur and Tekkaya 2006). Students’
perceptions also seem to support this conclusion (Blumberg 2000; Srinivasan et al.
2007). The study of Lohman and Finkelstein (2000) was more nuanced and concluded
that PBL students scored higher on SDL but only in small and medium groups. Lloyd-
Jones and Hak (2004) did not found evidence for the assumption that PBL fosters SDL.
Although most studies reported positive results, the way SDL is understood and
interpreted by students and teachers seems of overriding importance. A study of Moust
et al. (2005) reflected on three decades of PBL at Maastricht University. The authors
warn for “signs of erosion” in PBL (p. 665). With respect to SDL, it is conjectured that not
only students can experience uncertainty whether they have covered the intended
course content by their self-study activities. Faculty and tutors can share this fear. In
such cases, students are often provided with the core literature resources, which
reassures faculty and tutors that the content will be covered. Clearly, the freedom to
select and critically evaluate learning materials is completely undermined and SDL
becomes impossible. Conceptual clarity of what SDL entails and guidance for both
teachers and students can help PBL to bring forth self-directed learners (Miflin et al.
2000).

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Journal 2

Enhance low-achieving students' learning involvement in Taiwan's higher

education: an approach via e-learning with problem-based learning and self-
regulated learning.
Lee, T., Shen, P., & Tsai, C. (2010). Enhance low-achieving students' learning
involvement in Taiwan's higher education: an approach via e-learning with problem-
based learning and self-regulated learning. Teaching In Higher Education, 15(5), 553-
565. doi:10.1080/13562517.2010.506999

Summary

As PBL has been used in diverse ways for many years, the use of it as an web-
based teaching methods is relatively new (Savin-Baden 2007). Teachers face
tremendous challenges in implementing e-learning among students who are addicted to
the Internet and live in an environment with filled with a multitude of interesting websites,
free online games, and online messengers. It is difficult to focus students’ attention,
improve their learning, and help them be more involved in a web-based course without
the teacher’s on-the-spot monitoring. In this study, the authors adopted innovative web-
based teaching methods and technologies to help them learn.
Based on the results in this study, we found the effects of web-based PBL, web-
based SRL, and their combination on enhancing students’ involvement in an online
course were significant. In online learning environments, the physical absence of the
instructor, the lack of teacher’s on-the-spot monitoring, and students’ addiction to the
Internet, may result in students’ ineffective learning and lower involvement in an online
course. Based on the results in this study, the positive effects of PBL are found to
improve students’ involvement in an online course. Thus, it is suggested that teachers
could simulate or use real-world problems to create an interesting situation, and help
students be more involved in online environments, further improve their learning effects
and develop practical skills. Moreover, teachers generally feel that students’ lack of time
management skills is the greatest problem and obstacle to learning in virtual
environments. However, the students do not perceive lack of time management as a
problem (Lo¨ fstro¨m and Nevgi 2007). The increasing adoption of PBL and the

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development of web-based learning reflect the shift away from teaching as a means of
transmitting information toward supporting learning as a student-generated activity (see
for example, Savin-Baden 2007). Nevertheless, many students in Taiwan spend much
time in playing online games, browsing shopping websites, and chatting through online
messengers. This addiction to the Internet and the lack of self-regulatory skills may
seriously damage 562 T.-H. Lee et al. their online learning results. Therefore, it is very
critical to require students to develop the skills of self-regulation and time management
when they take online or blended courses. Furthermore, based on the findings of this
study, we advise that teachers should conscientiously redesign their courses and then
adopt new instructional methods and appropriate technologies to fully exploit the
benefits of web-based learning environments.
To enhance students’ involvement and regulate their learning in online courses,
the two innovative teaching methods, web-based PBL and web-based SRL, could be
applied simultaneously rather than separately, to enhance students’ involvement.
Researchers and teachers may imitate or modify this design to fit their needs. Students’
learning and their involvement in an online course could be improved through online
courses that are thoughtfully considered and designed. This study may provide valuable
insights and shed light on new and effective practices for schools, scholars and teachers
preparing for or presently engaged in implementing e-learning. Nevertheless, it is a big
challenge for teachers to adopt new and unfamiliar teaching methods. Teachers who
wish to integrate PBL and SRL in their teaching could benefit from experienced mentors,
or by participating in a community of peers who are interested in engaging in this form of
pedagogy.
Though this research results show that the web-enabled PBL, SRL, and their
combinations positively improve students’ involvement in the online course; however,
we still have to recognize that there are limitations to this study. The well-known
problems such as the Hawthorne effect and population selection make it difficult to
conclude with certainty whether the web-enabled teaching method is the only factor
responsible for improving students’ involvement (Bruce et al. 2005). Students in the
treatment groups in this study knew that they were participating in an experiment
involving web-enabled teaching methods. Therefore, it is suggested that one should
be aware of the Hawthorne effect and contextual factors that may threaten the
validity of claims made by this study.

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Journal 3

An evaluation of a problem-based learning experience in an occupational therapy

curriculum in the UK
Spalding, N., & Killett, A. (2010). An evaluation of a problem-based learning experience
in an occupational therapy curriculum in the UK. Occupational Therapy International,
17(2), 64-73. doi:10.1002/oti.288

Summary

The students recognized for themselves the limited time they have left for their
formalized pre-registration education and so saw this period of time in school as a time
to address outstanding needs, consolidate previous learning and to consider complex
issues. Thus, the preparation for their transition from student to qualified occupational
therapist was at the forefront of their learning objectives. The themes raised by the
students in the evaluation reflect this:
(1) Real cases (that they would be working with when qualified);
(2) Real practice (what actually happened for peers);
(3) OT for specialized cases (advanced learning);
(4) Collaborating with their peers who are seen as experts (because they have worked
with the case person);
(5) Balancing workload; and
(6) Appreciation of their own progress from novice to competent practitioner. The
purpose of PBL, placed in the final 3 months of the pre-registration programme, is clearly
significant for the students’ transition to qualified occupational therapist. The students
are planning the next step in their career, and thus need to shift their identity from
student towards practitioner. This implies moving on from the student role in which
practice is supervised, learning is relatively structured and assessment of learning is
regular and explicit. There is a need for them to make judgements about the knowledge
they can reasonably be expected to have (Atkinson and Steward, 1997). Where new
practitioners are unrealistic in their expectations of their professional competence, this
can increase the stress experienced in a first post (Morley et al., 2007). The opportunity

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to engage with clinical problems, where the needs of the patient are complex and set in
contexts with real challenges that health and social care settings have, can potentially
help students appreciate realistic limits to knowledge and skills.
Grealish and Trevitt (2005) found that student nurses identified a misfit between
the complex work environment and what had been learnt in the classroom, with politics,
pressures and inadequate resources effecting teams. They recommended that curricula
should help students develop the ability to critically analyse clinical practice. The authors
would suggest that placement PBL bridges the gap between theory and practice. As
qualified practitioners, increasing independence in practice will be expected (Nihill and
Gallager, 2007). As students become practitioners, they will be taking much greater
responsibility for their own learning. Assessment of learning for the newly qualified
professional will need to be much more implicit and self led compared with the formal
assessments in the pre-registration curriculum, making use of line management,
reflective practice and peer supervision.
Preceptorship introduced with Agenda for Change (Department of Health, 2004)
could potentially help new therapists to access high-quality professional supervision to
support their transition (Morley et al., 2007), but in the demanding environment of health
and social care settings, newly qualified practitioners will need to be proactive in
accessing such supervision. As Morley and colleagues themselves reported, there was a
tendency for professional supervision to concentrate on clinical issues, with the newly
qualified practitioners having to be assertive in any focus on their professional or
personal development (Morley et al., 2007).
Placement PBL should support development of such a confident, assertive
approach. Taking responsibility to prioritize their learning goals, prepare trigger material
and share learning and experience from placements to address these goals supports the
transition to increased responsibility for learning and confidence in negotiating
development needs and how to meet them. OT students also need to be equipped to
practise in environments beyond the National Health Service (Cameron and Morley,
2007) because they are increasingly working in third sector organizations and other non-
NHS organizations as commissioner-provider changes in health and well-being provision
develops in the 21st century. In organizations unfamiliar with their profession, and in
third sector organizations with varying levels of formality for supporting ongoing
professional development, again, new practitioners will have to be prepared to take
responsibility for their ongoing learning and professional development from an early

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stage. As discussed earlier, the PBL format, making use of actual examples within the
group’s experience, can address such issues directly and explicitly, as well as
developing the confidence and identity of the practitioners in transition implicitly through
the process. The findings identified students’ concern with the balance of their efforts
between the process of learning and the passing of assessments. As Kiernan et al.
(2008) argue, the PBL approach, with its emphasis on student led exploration, can be in
tension with the context of externally set goals and objectives of accredited professional
education. It is interesting, nonetheless, that the students viewed the learning and
assessment activities as so separate, where in the view of the staff the learning activities
carried out in the PBL sessions could closely support the assessment activities as the
assessments were designed to get students to draw on their clinical experience and
integrate it with theory. In fact, some students expressed the view that work carried out
for PBL should be directly assessed.
The students’ final assignments operate as a gateway to qualification and PBL
Evaluation in Occupational Therapy Spalding and Killett 72 Occup. Ther. Int. 17 (2010)
64–73 © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. legitimacy to practice. Without passing the
assignments, the students will not have the opportunity to make the transition to qualified
practitioner. There is a tension between the institutional emphasis on assessment as an
individual activity (for example, significant implications for failure or stiff penalties for
plagiarism and collusion) in contrast to the collaborative, shared nature of the PBL work
(Kiernan et al., 2008). The students’ prioritization of assessments over ongoing learning
that would support their development as professionals could be seen to illustrate the
need for transitional activities in which staff begin to work with the students as
colleagues and peers with valued knowledge and experience that in certain areas has
overtaken that of the staff.
The institution’s control of assessment could weaken the empowerment potential
that PBL processes could facilitate. Nihill and Gallagher (2007) argue that new
practitioners ‘laid aside’ theory that had been integrated with practical learning in PBL
training when they were faced with the reality of practice. The iterative nature of the PBL
described here, in which students brought back case material from the complex reality of
practice, and worked on learning goals derived from that complexity, has the potential to
embed theory/practice integration at a deeper but also more contextualized level.

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Both evaluators were the PBL facilitators (and the first author was their course director).
Therefore, students might have been reticent to give honest feedback. However, the
form was anonymized and previous interactions with the students had not shown them
to hold back on critiquing their study experiences. The focus groups were large (15), so
although these groups replicated their PBL group experience, the large number may
have limited everyone’s equal involvement.
Placement PBL has developed, with an emphasis on partnership between the
students and facilitators, negotiated reduction in student workload and active facilitation
to focus students’ learning. Placement PBL was seen to be a useful approach to support
the students in the important process of transition from student to qualified occupational
therapist. Placement PBL provides current, relevant and complex learning scenarios that
help students to move from a theoretical understanding to application of theory, in the
complexity of actual service situations. Evaluations will continue to enable placement
PBL to develop further. There is scope for comparative studies of the efficacy of PBL for
improving the transition from student to qualified occupational therapist with traditional
learning approaches.

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Conclusion

In journal 1, Conceptual clarity of what Self-Directed Learning (SDL) entails and

guidance or intensive for both teachers and students can help Problem-Based Learning
to bring forth self-directed learners, means a systematic approach will improve students
attitude to become more independent in acquiring knowledge.

In journal 2, research discusses the results of web-enabled problem–based

learning (PBL), self-directed learning (SDL) and Self-regulated learning (SRL), and their
combinations positively enhance students’ involvement in the online course, however the
whole system, educational and school system, the collaboration between online and
offline learning along with teachers and pupils commitment must be considered to
achieve an optimum result of success.

In journal 3, Placement Problem-Based Learning was seen to be a useful

approach to support the students in the important process of transition from student to
qualified occupational therapist. In general, problem-based learning is more successful
and effective for medical and health science student, since the application of PBL
provide them with their real world career demands and experiences.

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References.

Loyens, S., Magda, J., & Rikers, R. (2008). Self-Directed Learning in Problem-Based
Learning and its Relationships with Self-Regulated Learning. Educational Psychology
Review, 20(4), 411-427. doi:10.1007/s10648-008-9082-7

Lee, T., Shen, P., & Tsai, C. (2010). Enhance low-achieving students' learning
involvement in Taiwan's higher education: an approach via e-learning with problem-
based learning and self-regulated learning. Teaching In Higher Education, 15(5), 553-
565. doi:10.1080/13562517.2010.506999

Spalding, N., & Killett, A. (2010). An evaluation of a problem-based learning experience

in an occupational therapy curriculum in the UK. Occupational Therapy International,
17(2), 64-73. doi:10.1002/oti.288

Barrett, T. (2010). The problem-based learning process as finding and being in flow.
Innovations In Education & Teaching International, 47(2), 165-174.
doi:10.1080/14703291003718901

O'Neill, G., & Woei, H. (2010). Seeing the landscape and the forest floor: changes made
to improve the connectivity of concepts in a hybrid problem-based learning curriculum.
Teaching In Higher Education, 15(1), 15-27. doi:10.1080/13562510903488006

Khan, M., Sinnadurai, R., Amudha, M. M., Elamvazuthi, I. I., & Vasant, P. P. (2010).
ADOPTING PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING MODEL FOR AN ELECTRICAL
ENGINEERING CURRICULUM. AIP Conference Proceedings, 1239(1), 347-350.
doi:10.1063/1.3459771

Parton, G., & Bailey, R. (2008). Problem-based learning: a critical rationalist perspective.
London Review Of Education, 6(3), 281-292. doi:10.1080/14748460802528475

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