This week the readings focused on case, problem, and project-based learning. These three pedagogical approaches are all examples of ways to actively engage students in a classroom and there is a large amount of literature that focuses on these approaches. As a student, I have had more experience with case and project-based learning approaches. On the other hand, as an instructor and GTA, I have focused more on facilitating case-based learning strategies. This difference is likely due to the differences in the classes that I’ve taken and the classes that I’ve worked with.
My undergraduate engineering curriculum had a heavy emphasis on group projects through our engineering design course, lab courses, and capstone senior design course. While I can recall a couple of examples of professors using case-based learning, many of these lessons were related to engineering ethics which is widely taught using case studies. I felt that these approaches were usually useful in supporting my learning, however, there were also times where I did not understand the purpose of the activity. In my first-year engineering design course, I recall being very frustrated with the instructor while we were doing project-based learning because I did not feel like they were teaching or supporting the class. In hindsight, they were likely doing more than I thought to facilitate the class, however, since they did not introduce or explain their approach our class did not understand the activity which hindered our learning. I believe that when using different pedagogical approaches in the classroom and introducing students to new activities it is important to be transparent with your intentions and the desired outcomes.
As an instructor, I realized the benefits of these approaches and was able to facilitate activities geared towards case-based learning. My approach to these activities was to allow students to give students scope and expectations of what we were looking for them to gain from the activity and then allowing them to either research a case within the scope or choose from a list we curated. The students’ feedback was overwhelmingly positive. We found that by letting them research and choose their own cases they felt like they had agency in their learning. For this activity, the feedback was very important to assess if the activity was working as intended and make sure that the students understood the purpose of the activity.
I believe that these pedagogical approaches can help us expand our teaching “toolbox” and increase the number of ways that it is possible to engage with students in a classroom. However, I also believe that to successfully implement these approaches one needs to carefully consider the purpose and intended outcomes of the activity and how it aligns with the chosen method. Due to all of the possible differences that could exist between different classes and students instructors must be careful to make sure that the pedagogical approach aligns with the course content and learning goals. If used incorrectly or without sufficient forethought case, problem, and project-based learning pedagogies will not be effective.
Hi Sophia,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I really enjoyed reading your experiences from the student perspectives on these pedagogies. I fully agree with you that the implementations require deeper and constant reflections for success as these are not what is used to facilitate learning typically in classrooms. I always and will continue to challenge myself to think about strategies and plans on these pedagogical approaches. My fear has always been that the students may end up zoning out of the course after a not-well-thought-out implementation of these approaches.
Your post made me recall an important presentation requirement that I had drilled into in my last job. I was a sales engineer and basically gave presentations as my job. For every presentation, regardless of length, topic, audience, or format, we always always always had to start it with an introduction. The introduction established what content we were covering, clarified learning goals, and set expectations. I saw first-hand that if I left this part out, I would get a question part-way through from someone clearly confused asking about something very fundamental as to what we were doing or learning. I had always taken intros for granted before that job, assuming that people either knew what they were getting into or would catch on. But especially in classes, some people are there just because they have to be and aren't focusing well enough for my previous assumption to be true. Anyway, that's a long way of saying that I think it's great you pointed out the shortcomings of your PBL experiences due to instructors failing to introduce or explain the class's learning strategy.
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