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\u201cWe want our colleagues to embrace this new way of teaching, and we know that can\u2019t happen if we place too much of a burden on them.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n There are several challenges, both pedagogic and motivational, in successfully implementing a PBL approach.\u00a0 The team behind the Engineering: Creating Technologies that Help People<\/a>\u00a0module in the summer school have had to keep these are the forefront of our thinking when designing the module.<\/p>\n The main pedagogic challenges are timetabling PBL modules, allocating teaching resources and deciding on assessment methods.\u00a0 Instructors unused to the approach often face a steep learning curve and, structurally, university departments may struggle to allocate sufficient staffing resources to the PBL stream, particularly in the early stages of adoption when the majority of instruction continues to be offered via the more-traditional large-scale lecture.\u00a0 Proper planning \u2013 and the allocation of sufficient resources to planning \u2013 in advance of the launch of a new PBL stream is essential, as is continued monitoring of the impact of PBL on instructor workload once the stream has launched.\u00a0 We want our colleagues to embrace this new way of teaching, and we know that can\u2019t happen if we place too much of a burden on them.<\/p>\n The main motivational challenge is getting students who arrive at university having only received information-transfer based instruction to actively engage with this new approach to learning.\u00a0 For example, a team from Dublin Institute of Technology examined the student experience of a PBL module offered as part of the 1st<\/sup> year of one of their undergraduate engineering courses.1<\/sup>\u00a0 The module had two competitions, an intermediate competition at the midpoint and a second at the end; and the Dublin team found that students did not really commit to the PBL approach until the date of the first competition approached i.e. until the very last moment.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen examining what reasons students give for feeling motivated by a project, one of the themes that comes up most often is \u201cauthenticity\u201d.\u201d<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n The Dublin PBL module was centred on creating a robot to take part in a Sumo wrestling contest (the second competition).\u00a0 However, when examining what reasons students give for feeling motivated by a project, one of the themes that comes up most often is \u201cauthenticity\u201d \u2013 having a real-world problem to solve.\u00a0 The table below, taken from a Finnish study2<\/sup> of two projects assigned to IT students, summarises the findings of three earlier studies that touched on motivational factors.\u00a0 Taking out the aspects centred on the team-based project aspects common to all PBL, we have factors related to the \u201creal world\u201d \u2013 authenticity, and, related to this, the existence and participation of a client.<\/p>\n \u201cThe role of the instructor\/advisor is to support the student with encouragement and context\u201d<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n So these are the factors we\u2019ve had to think about in putting together our Engineering module.\u00a0 And with these in mind we\u2019ve designed a learning experience centred on bringing together students and clients to solve real-world problems.\u00a0 Project-Based Learning is a powerful tool for helping deliver knowledgeable students who are active in pursuit of their own learning, but the choice of project is key to triggering engagement with an approach that the student will likely be entirely unfamiliar-with upon arrival; keeping it real delivers that engagement.\u00a0 At the same time, we recognise that the authenticity of the scenario can also prove daunting.\u00a0 So we\u2019ve recruited a team of instructor\/advisors ready to support the student with encouragement and context, giving them the confidence to make this leap from the classroom into the real world.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to make sure that in keeping it real, we don\u2019t also make it miserable.\u201d<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n And there is one last thing we know we need to get right: we need to make sure that in keeping it real, we don\u2019t also make it miserable. \u00a0\u00a0I think Beau Lotto, neuroscientist and expert on perception said it best: \u201cUncertainty is what makes play fun. Right? It’s adaptable to change. Right? It opens possibility, and it’s cooperative. It’s actually how we do our social bonding, and it’s intrinsically motivated. What that means is that we play to play. Play is its own reward.<\/p>\n \u201cNow if you look at these five ways of being, these are the exact same ways of being you need in order to be a good scientist. If you add rules to play, you have a game. That’s actually what an experiment is.\u201d Beau Lotto, TED Talk \u201cScience is for Everyone, Kids Included\u201d 06\/12<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>References<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWe want our colleagues to embrace this new way of teaching, and we know that can\u2019t happen if we place too much of a burden on them.\u201d There are several challenges, both pedagogic and motivational, in successfully implementing a PBL … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/summertimes\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/159\/files\/2016\/11\/table-3.png\")
At the same time, the Finnish study found that there two project teams sometimes felt pressured by having to meet the expectations of the client and tackle a real-world problem [that they may see as intractable].\u00a0 It is here where support from the instructor\/advisor is key providing context, encouragement and helping the students focus on achievable goals and maintaining a good working relationship with the client.<\/p>\n\n