Some Aspects of the Problem-Based Learning applied to Electrical Engineering

E. Helerea Transilvania University of Brasov Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty

CONTENTS
I. INTERACTIVE METHODS IN TEACHING -LEARNING PROCESS II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING IV. CONCLUSIONS

I. INTERACTIVE METHODS IN TEACHING -LEARNING PROCESS

WHAY? Because the administrative resources of higher education institutions become more and more limited,
The teachers must expose the scientific contents to a greater number of the students. The direct communication between teacher and student becomes even more difficult The quality of learning process could decrease.

In the conditions of globalization and of the development of a society based on knowledge for the graduates are required new tasks.

I. INTERACTIVE METHODS IN TEACHING -LEARNING PROCESS

NEW APPROACHES on the methods of teaching-learning-evaluation processes must be taken into account
to save time, to make the process efficient.

IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION
to create the professional competences, the define the moral profile of Homo Technicus Eminens, to take into account the students and their learning needs.

I. INTERACTIVE METHODS IN TEACHING -LEARNING PROCESS

COMPARISON
Traditional learning Lectures Knowledge transfer Syllabi Theory and concepts Knowledge acquisition Deductive thinking Memorizing lectures Individual work Exams Active learning Work in tutorial Building the knowledge Defining the objectives Conflict-situations/ problems Skill to learn Inductive thinking Finding the information Work in group Self-assessment /Formative evaluation

II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING (PBL)

PBL- an active method of teaching - learning, which transfers the responsibility of learning process on the students;
PBL- based on the process of analyzing a conflict (problem) -situation, and clarifying the sources of conflict based on the previous and newly acquired knowledge; In PBL - students have an active role in creating the problem, in analyzing and giving solution/solutions; PBL- increases the student responsibility and motivation for learning.

II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

HISTORY OF PBL
In the late 1960s - PBL approach started in medical schools of USA (see Howard Barrows) / University of Delaware adapts PBL method (Tutorial Methods of Instruction), In 1974 - the University of Aalborg Denmark declares his educational strategy in using PBL and PJL (faculties of Humanities, Social Science and Engineering and Science), In 2000 - the University Catholic of Leuven Belgium (Candis 2000 project - PBL for building engineering education), New trends in Europe - training courses for teachers and tutors to get skills in designing and implementing the PBL method (Maastricht, Paris 7 Denis Diderot, Louis Pasteur University of Strasbourg etc.), EU Commission sustain new projects on education.

II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

Leonardo Project COMPLETE

New Strategies of COMPetence Acquisition for Lifelong Learning in Energy Transport Environment Engineering

II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

Main objective and actions of COMPLETE project: To introduce innovation in using the interactive methods PBL and PJL for engineering education To prepare the teachers as trainees:
how to design the processes, how to assist the students, to promote thinking and discussion, to establish and maintain positive group dynamics, to provide students new resources.

II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

Application domain is multidisciplinary one: Energy-Transport-Environment due to its complexity - this area offers many combined situations submitted to analysing (energy-environment; transport environment, etc.), many attractive problems could be solved, having as active solvers the students, an e-platform will sustain this innovative approach.

II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

STEPS FOR DESIGNING THE PBL SCENARIO:

1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6. 7.

Establishing the PBL team of teaching staff; Studying the different parts of the course and proposing to the way/modality they will be best taught; Preparation of the support material for students work; Selection of the tutors; Choosing/designing the lab facilities if is necessarily; Defining the Agenda; Preparing the ways for a good communication for the groups of both teachers/tutors and students

II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

Process of implementing the PBL method

II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

Main steps

Phases

Actors

I. Teacher group

Making a scenario according to learning objectives Teacher Defining/creating the situation problems Teacher Tutor Tutor and students Tutor and students Tutor and students Tutor and students Tutor and students

II. Tutor group Presenting the situation-problem Identifying and clarifying the terms Defining the problem and drawing a list of processes to clarify III. Work group Analyzing the problem and emitting/proposal/ the hypothesis Systematizing the hypothesis Clarifying the learning objectives

II. PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

Main steps IV. Individual work V. Validation the knowledge Individual study

Phases

Actors Students Tutor and students Tutor and students Students

Systematizing and validating the solution and the hypothesis Tutorial evaluation

VI. Selfevaluation

Self and peer evaluation/ Individual balance/efficiency of the results

III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

PBL perspectives:
Some researches prove that PBL is not appropriate as a method for acquiring basic skills such as reading or computation, Some researches show that PBL enhances the quality of learning for specific competences, Relevant and engaging instructional models should be developed in concordance with learning environment.

III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

Requirements of a good PBL problem:

to be engaged and oriented to the real world, to generate multiple hypotheses, to be consistent with desired learning outcomes, to build upon the previous knowledge and experience, to promotes development of higher order cognitive skills.

III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

A SIMPLE CASE IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING - Example ELECTRIC CAPACITOR AS ENERGY STORAGE DEVICE

PBL for the undergraduate students an opportunity to activate the old concepts and to discover new concepts in EEE: old concepts: electrical field; physical quantities: electric charge, capacitance, electric energy and forces; ideal capacitor, new concepts: static and dynamic processes of charging and discharging, real capacitor, equivalent schema, dynamic characteristics; ageing of the materials; reliability of the capacitor; etc.

III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

THE PROPOSED SCENARIO OF RUNNING THE PBL PROCESS

A) START MEETING Problem-situation exposing many electrical capacitors are used today for energy storage, but their characteristics are not reliable. Problem-situation analyzing
What is a capacitor? How is energy accumulated in a capacitor? What happens when an electric voltage is applied? Is it possible to represent a real capacitor? Could the SPICE program be used in showing the charging process? Etc. How to reduce the charging time for an electric capacitor? or Does temperature have a great influence on the charging time? or What charging-discharge characteristics are required for the energy stocking capacitors?

III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

Establishing learning objectives to clarify the charge-discharge processes in capacitors, to clarify what a real capacitor is, to introduce different equivalent schema for real capacitor, to apply the electrical circuit methods in description of the static and dynamic characteristics, etc.

III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

B) INDIVIDUAL/AUTONOMOUS STUDY References, papers, lab applications, and computer applications to find the explanations for the list of questions. it should also use some computer techniques. For example - a simulation of the real RC serial capacitor supplied with step voltage, with SPICE program.

III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

Solving this problem with SPICE, NEW QUESTIONS will be generated: What is a step signal? What is the significance of the time constant of the RC circuit? What is the connection between the time constant of a RC circuit and charge time? What is and for what a marker is used? Etc. In this step, each student will note on the LIST OF QUESTIONS / tasks the plausible explanations and also the points of ambiguities.

III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

C) MEETING FOR COMMON USE OF ACQUIRED KNOWLEDGE Objective to realize the balance of group, and to evaluate if the learning objectives are achieved. The discussions will generate further questions: These questions will generate other further problems/problem-situations, such as: How could the charge-discharge times be modified? Etc.

III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

It is possible now to establish new learning tasks: A new SPICE program model for real capacitor could be proposed, for example, RC circuit with two different resistors for charge/discharge processes. Time of charge/discharge processes can be varied by two resistors Rext and RL; For different values of resistors different values of charge/discharge times are obtained.

III. HOW TO DO PROBLEM DESIGNING

- Diagram of Concepts
Electric field

Capacitor energy stocking

Energy & electric forces

Electric circuits

Capacitor electrods

Dielectric Charge / discharge processes Anorganic Organic

Metals Semiconductors

Electrolyte s

Thin layer technology

Super-capacitors technology Models

Real capacitor

IV. CONCLUSIONS
Education needs to adapt to a changing world

PBL is of an increasingly interest - to create new instructional practices, reflecting the environment in which students live and learn now;
Different strategies can be applied, depending on several criteria: the number of students, special environment, and objectives of syllabi/curricula, time requirements; In PBL method, the specific responsibilities for the actors involved - teachers, tutors and students are required; In electrical engineering education, the problematic of electric capacitor could be use in PBL applications, and computer could sustain learning and solving problems, initiating the new ones.