Beeldmerk ENOTHE Europa

Innovative Teaching Methods - Problem Based Learning

PBL Project group

The aim of this PBL Project group is to share information, insert a page on ENOTHE website and organise a conference on PBL every year. The group is consisting of seven persons:

The mission statement of the project group

PBL

Problem-based Learning (PBL). PBL is rapidly becoming a recognisable alternative approach to education around the world fitting knowledge, life-long learning and skills agendas. PBL is profoundly different from the usual mode of higher education. It began more than thirty years ago in medical education, when it was observed that students on clinical placement could not apply knowledge that they had demonstrated very well in earlier years.

GOAL of the PBL project group

We can define 2 major goals for the PBL project group. Those goals are based on the intention to provide guidance and support to beginners, and to provide a platform for reflection to experienced users. The ultimate goal is to create an ongoing learning environment, and work towards an OT education with high standards and quality all over Europe.

1 Sharing best practice or stories of failures

To share experience in stories with experiences of teachers and students. Using the themes in PBL as tutoring, writing triggers, implementation in curriculum.

Overview of experiences / beginners /experienced / steps in between

2 Website

Therefore we will use this Website to open for everyone who wants to find some basic information, literature, contact addresses, recent publications,... of using PBL in an OT-curriculum. And a Black Board course for Enothe members where we can discuss topics in PBL, exchange experiences, exchange triggers, and to support each other in developing our curriculum. The outcomes of these discussions, surveys, will be published on the Enothe web.

Soon the guidelines to apply for this BB-course will be on the ENOTHE website.

PBL Stories & Sigposts

Years ago we started our project to write a book to support the OT-faculties in changing their program in to a PBL-based one. In ATHENS 2004 the book will be presented at the ENOTHE conference. The book is a combination of real life experiences of teachers and student using PBL. Their doubts, failures successes are captured in more than 20 stories.

When you want to start a new itinerary, a journey you need a guide, you buy a booklet with some information of all the paths you can follow. But we all know that the best information one can get is the inside information, of an experienced one, who already found his way towards his target, it offers most of the time more information as the book contains.
That's the reason we will start the book with some stories, as an appetizer, to get some huger for more in depth information.

We tried to link the stories to the information of the guidelines, or signposts.

At first we wanted to call the book "guidelines for implementation of PBL in an OT-curriculum". But can we really offer one structured guideline that leads towards the ultimate and perfect PBL-programme? Is there only the one and unique pathway towards a PBL-based curriculum? Can we foresee, or even estimate the unique starting point of every OT programme in Europe to offer one guideline that fits each individual institution's expectations like a glove?

This is the reason why our group named the book "Signposts towards a PBL Oriented Curriculum". A Signpost is a post bearing one or more signs that shows the way. One or more signs mean that there isn't one unique path towards a PBL-curriculum. There is only one philosophy of student-centred education that leads us all. However, different backgrounds, other teaching traditions, every day reality, the management of the university, political guidelines and restrictions will all influence the journey towards the changed curriculum.

We aim to focus on a large group of possible readers, first of all OT's; they are the hard core of OT-educational programs. We can't deny that the managers of the school for Occupational Therapy are the ones who will take the decisions, and will invest in the change of curriculum. We want to offer these OT's the arguments and evidence to support their application for the change towards a PBL-oriented curriculum.

An even more important participant in the whole changing process is the student. The student is our client with his own motivation and expectations of a study program, and he needs to be informed in advance of any changes to his expected learning style.

It is clear that Managers and decision makers will read this book to search for the arguments for or against PBL. The authors of this book are convinced believers in the value of a PBL oriented curriculum, but they are also aware and have experiences of the difficulties that may occur.

FAQ

What is PBL?

Problem-based learning:

Does PBL have to be done on groups?

The interactional nature of learning and the process of team building as central to problem-based learning as an approach to learning then obviously it has to be done in groups.

Can I use problem-based learning in just one module?

Yes, many people use in only one module. However it is important to remember that the whole module needs to be designed on problem-based principles from start to finish so that students understand this is a different way of learning than more traditional approaches. Changing one module to problem-based learning is also often used by those wanting to try out the approach before changing a whole curriculum to this method of learning.

Can non-experts be effective tutors?

It has been evident from discussions that there is a mixture of opinions about the role of non-experts in the small group experiences, both on the campus and in the literature. It is clear that expert tutors are beneficial especially early in the presentation of the material, or where the experience is not well structured. The notion that expert tutors would be too directive for PBL small groups has been called into question by studies showing that students do not perform better with non-experts, or performed worse .Thus far, studies support the selection of experts for tutors. We also recognized that the class size might limit such a selection in some areas.

I have a question

My question:
 

PBL is the best way to teach Occupational Therapy

Yes
No
Why or why not?
 

If you use PBL as a learning method we would like to know

Name of the institution (required)
Full address (required)
Contact person (required)
E-mail (required)
Website
PBL in your curriculum
Our entire curriculum is problem based learning (PBL)
Our curricullum partial (>50%) base on PBL
Some course/ modules/parts of our curriculum are PBL
PBL -methodology
We use the Maastricht method ( 7 jumps/steps)
We use the Barrows method
We use brain-mapping method
Other methods
Please specify the method used:
Can we use your co-ordinates in an index of PBL-schools in the book "SIGNPOSTS"
Yes you can
No you can't
 

OT faculties with curricula based PBL

Full program

A part of the program


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Questions or remarks to Hanneke van Bruggen