Can PBL work for surface students?

As educators in the higher education sector, how are we going to engage all students in the deep learning process so that they could resolve problems themselves? There is no one solution to the question. This paper delimits the exploration and evaluation of one form of teaching methodology, problem based learning (PBL) and its effects on student learning.

Original form of problem based learning was first used to teach medical students to find possible solution through real life cases. PBL is one of the student centred teaching approaches that is proved to be effective to foster deep learning and improving problem solving skill. Traditionally, PBL works well in small classes and this method emphasises the learning process in which students actively engage in collecting information and solving a problem. Students are not working alone as they can build their own understanding under the guidance of instructor, but the instructor does not do the building for them.

On the contrary, many studies indicated that not all students in the classes could benefit from the original form of PBL. Direct import of the typical PBL model may not be appropriate to all students. In this study, the original pure PBL model is modified and developed into a form that is suitable to both deep and surface students in a Higher Diploma engineering course of Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Tsing Yi). This study investigates the effect of newly revised PBL model. A large experimental class (N=80) of engineering students, 4 to 5 students are freely to form a group. The members of each group will be the same throughout this period of study. The revised PBL model is applied to this experimental class for one term (approximately 4 months). This PBL model started with a problem at the beginning of the term given to a group of students to solve. Then, a variety of teaching and learning modes which included lectures, tutorials, group discussion, and presentation were used to facilitate students to solve the problem. Promising results gathered from summative test (as compared with control class) and student interview show that this modified PBL model is suitable to students of both learning approaches. This PBL model is worthwhile for further investigation to improve the quality of student learning and problem solving skill to survive in this fast changing society.