Using Problem Based Learning

By Ron J Richard, PhD.

This past January, the Centre for Flexible Learning was pleased to bring to the University of Windsor campus one of the world’s foremost experts in the area of  Problem Based Learning (PBL). Dr. Yves Mauffette, an entomologist by training, a recent 3M Fellow (2004) and head of Biological Sciences at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), has been a champion of this approach to teaching sciences in higher education for over a decade, and he has authored and co-authored several studies into its application and efficacy.

PBL is a subset of a larger approach to pedagogy collectively referred to as “Active Learning” which seeks to shift the focus away from teaching and more to the learner and the learning process.

In 1995, Dr. Mauffette spearheaded an initiative introduced by the Dean of Science at UQAM to make teaching at that institution more engaging, more effective, with the intention of graduating students with a broader range of life and learning skills. Drawing from the experiences of the medical school at McMaster University which developed and have been incorporating PBL/case-based training since the 1970’s, Dr. Mauffette and his colleagues transformed the Environmental Biology programme at UQAM into the first completely PBL based undergraduate programme in Canada. This despite considerable resistance from his own faculty, and having to overcome his own initial qualms about the process. It is now seen as a model world-wide.

Dr. Yves Mauffette explains Problem Based Learning.
photo: Tory James

Dr. Mauffette’s day at the University of Windsor consisted of two half-day sessions. The morning session was mostly a presentation on the basics of PBL, and a short demonstration of how the problem based approach is implemented in the classroom. The afternoon session consisted of putting the process into practice, breaking the 30 or so participants into small groups to explore the challenge of coming up with good problems. This is seen as a key factor in the success of problem based learning. It is not simply “problem solving”, but using a well crafted and contextually sound problem as a basis for discussion, exploration, research and, ultimately, learning.

PBL is a subset of a larger approach to pedagogy collectively referred to as “Active Learning” which seeks to shift the focus away from teaching and more to the learner and the learning process. It is a process seen as beneficial to both the teacher and the student in that it engages and empowers the student in the content, and opens a broad variety of techniques beyond the standard lecture to encourage faculty to stay fresh and current in their field, and involved in their students’ progress. It is a process that seeks a true balance between research and publication on one side, and teaching excellence on the other. It seeks to make learning an active process, rather than a passive one.

According to Dr. Kurt Burch, a professor of International Relations at the University of Delaware, another institution where PBL is actively used, Problem Based Learning,

"…is a pedagogically sound, scholastically beneficial, and socially desireable response to concerns about educational reform. According to recent research, PBL is the most effective technique for students to learn, apply, integrate and retain information.

[It]…requires students to take responsibility for their learning by placing them in cooperative groups to address specific, concrete problems…The teacher guides student inquiry by asking Socratic questions.

The PBL premise holds that most students will better learn information if they need it; need arises as they try to solve problems. Such problems require information in specific contexts and prompt students to use immediately the knowledge they discover, to apply the information, and to explain it to others."

From “A Primer on Problem Based Learning for International Relations Courses” by Kurt Burch, in International Studies Perspective, Vol 1, 2000, pp. 31-32.

The PBL premise holds that most students will better learn information if they need it; need arises as they try to solve problems.

The workshops were well attended by faculty from many disciplines, especially the sciences and engineering. This is not surprising as the approach has been most extensively used in these fields, and the impetus for bringing Dr. Mauffette here came from faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences here at the University of Windsor. Like several other departments, Biology is currently in the midst of programme curriculum review, and sought to explore and learn about other approaches.

One of the themes of Dr. Mauffette’s presentation was his conviction, based on his experience, that the real benefits of PBL shine at the faculty-wide, programme wide level. Certainly PBL should not be seen as an exclusionary alternative to more traditional forms of instruction, such as the lecture, but rather as a worldview of learning that incorporates a variety of techniques, all of which focus on engaging the learner.

Working in groups to understand groupwork.
photo: Tory James

...we have a real and growing commitment to exploring and developing pedagogical alternatives to meet the increasingly changing skills, expectations and demographics of our modern student population.

The most frequent comments heard in questions and discussions following the workshops was how, on the one hand, many of the components of the strategy (i.e. groupwork, problem solving, Socratic inquiry) are hardly unknown to faculty here, implementing them on a programme-wide level as UQAM has in its Biological Sciences department poses some rather daunting challenges. One great advantage that Dr. Mauffette and his colleagues shared in getting PBL instated there was the existence in the province of Quebec of a college preparatory system known as CEGEP (Collège d'enseignement général et professionnel or College of General and Vocational Education). These colleges allow students intending to enter major degree programs at Quebec universities the ability to take in one year a great many of the courses that we here at U of W, like most universities outside Quebec, would consider “electives”. This allows undergraduate degree programmes in Quebec to focus their curriculum choices on specific fields of study. This lends itself to the PBL approach developed by UQAM, in which entire semesters are dedicated to interconnected PBL-taught units solely devoted to the biological sciences. This approach would have to be greatly modified in a system such as ours where electives and core programme courses are more generally interspersed.

Whether or not Active Learning, in the form of Problem Based Learning, is ever implemented on a large scale at the University of Windsor remains to be seen. What is perhaps more significant is the notion that, as evidenced by the very strong interest shown by our faculty and administration in these workshops, the idea that learning-centredness is becoming more than an abstract concept. It shows that we have a real and growing commitment to exploring and developing pedagogical alternatives to meet the increasingly changing skills, expectations and demographics of our modern student population. It shows we need not be afraid to embrace the tools, strategies and technologies that we now have available to meet the challenges of modern academia. Like the lifelong learners we hope our students to become, we as a teaching institution need to be ever vigilant in our pursuit of excellence.

Ron J Richard, PhD., is the Senior Instructional Designer and Manager of Distributed Learning, at the Centre for Flexible Learning at the University of Windsor.

© 2006, Ron J Richard. All rights reserved.