The Effectiveness of Problem-Based Instruction: A Comparative Study of Instructional Methods and Student Characteristics

This study compared the effectiveness of problem-based learning (PBL) and traditional instructional approaches in developing high-school students’ macroeconomics knowledge and examined whether PBL was differentially effective with students demonstrating different levels of four aptitudes: verbal ability, interest in economics, preference for group work, and problem-solving efficacy. Over all, PBL was found to be a more effective instructional approach for teaching macroeconomics than traditional lecture–discussion (p = .05). Additional analyses provided evidence that PBL was more effective than traditional instruction with students of average verbal ability and below, students who were more interested in learning economics, and students who were most and least confident in their ability to solve problems

Effectiveness of Problem Based Learning Model toward Biology Learning Outcomes

This study aimed to analyze the effectiveness Problem Based Learning toward Biology learning outcomes in the subject of Basic Nursing Science I. The research design was true experimental design. The population in this study was the first-grade students in Nursing Sciences Study Program in Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Kesehatan Bali. Purposive sampling technique was applied to select the sample size in experimental and control group. There were 162 respondents included in this study. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistic and independent sample T-Test. The result showed that the average of post-test in control group was 67.01 ± 7.53 and average of post-test in the experimental group was 80.16 ± 5.92 (p < 0.05). It could be concluded that Problem Based Learning Model is more effective than a conventional model. It can be used for the alternative model in learning which can improve student’s ability in critical thinking and the learning outcomes of Biology in subject Basic Nursing Science I

Problem-based teaching in engineering education

The aerospace industry requires highly educated, motivated engineers capable of working with increasingly complex processes and equipment, rapidly-changing requirements, and the need to constantly improve production efficiency. Colleges and universities throughout the world strive to provide training to young professionals for jobs in high-tech industries and to provide not only core technical knowledge, but also training on how to approach problems creatively and to generate novel solutions to problems. Problem-based learning (PBL) contributes to solving this problem. This paper reviews the literature on PBL, studies its benefits and drawbacks, and presents the positive results achieved by its implementation in the training of engineering students at Tomsk Polytechnic University

Teaching evidence-based management with a focus on producing local evidence

We present an approach to teaching evidence-based management (EBMgt) that trains future managers how to produce local evidence. Local evidence is causally interpretable data, collected on-site in companies to address a specific business problem. Our teaching method is a variant of problem-based learning, a method originally developed to teach evidence-based medicine. Following this method, students learn an evidence-based problem-solving cycle for addressing actual business cases. Executing this cycle, students use and produce scientific evidence through literature searches and the design of local, experimental tests of causal hypotheses. We argue the value of teaching EBMgt with a focus on producing local evidence, how it can be taught, and what can be taught. We conclude by outlining our contribution to the literature on teaching EBMgt and by discussing limitations of our approach

War Resistance And Moral Experience.

This study examines resistance to the Vietnam War as an arena for moral experience. It presents portraits of five war resisters drawn from extensive open-ended interviews and then discusses the common themes which emerged from these interviews concerning the participants' moral experience. The first theme is that of participants' revulsion to immoral acts--their personal involvement in immorality. This involvement occurred: (1) as a result of empathic identification with the victims of the war; and (2) when participants perceived themselves responsible for immoral acts. A second theme discussed is the relative absence of philosophical reflection regarding the moral justification for the actions participants were taking. A final theme is the importance of participants' self-definition as moral agents who could not commit wrongdoing. The study concludes that moral experience must be considered in terms of individuals' self-definitions as moral agents and the affective response which occurred when they thought of violating those definitions. Moral experience seems fundamentally unrelated to the model proposed by cognitive-developmentalists such as Lawrence Kohlberg. The ability to conceptualize abstract moral principles, and reason about impersonal moral dilemmas is only tangentially--if at all--related to lived moral experience. What is a rebel? A man who says no, but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation. He is also a man who says yes, from the moment he makes his first gesture of rebellion. . . . What does he mean by saying no? He means, for example, that this has been going on too long, up to this point yes, beyond it no, you are going too far, or again, there is a limit beyond which you shall not go. In other words, his no affirms the existence of a borderline . . . the movement of rebellion is founded simultaneously on the categorical rejection of an intrusion that is considered intolerable and on the confused conviction of an absolute right which, in the rebel's mind, is more precisely the impression that he has the right to . . . Rebellion cannot exist without the feeling that, somewhere and somehow, one is right. It is in this way that the rebel slave says yes and no simultaneously. He affirms that there are limits and also that he suspects--and wishes to preserve--the existence of certain things on this side of the borderline. (From The Rebel by Albert Camus)Ph.D.PsychologySocial psychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/127582/2/8125168.pd

Online Professional Development for Project Based Learning: Pathways to Systematic Improvement

This paper describes efforts to increase the prevalence, rigor and relevance of Project Based Learning in US schools and internationally. Under a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE), US Department of Education, the Buck Institute for Education and partners are offering: 1) an online staff development resource, 2) modules for use in teacher training institutions, 3) a re-usable online 3- credit course, and 4) a way to share projects, collaborate on research, and advance understanding of effective use of projects in the classroom. The PBL-Online web site will offer a multi-pathway, interactive, video rich website designed to prepare pre-service and practicing teachers to implement academically rigorous, standards-focused Project Based Learning (PBL). The online materials are based on the BIE Project Based Learning Handbook that provides teachers with in-depth, systematic instruction in the planning, implementation and assessment of standards-focused PBL. Our work with the Handbook was recently highlighted as a key resource for proponents of small school reform in an evaluation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation National School District and Network Grants Program conducted by the American Institutes for Research with SRI International on page 65 of the report (http://smallhs.sri.com). Making this Handbook available online and offering online instruction in its use will support wider use and study of this promising but often either underutilized or misunderstood approach

International, Collaborative and Online Education of LIS-students – A Step to the Future?

In this paper, we will analyze and discuss the quality of a project course with an international, collaborative and online format, whose content touches all Swiss information literacy standards. The analysis on a micro-level shall illuminate if the course setup can be declared as a more comprehensive teaching method for LIS students, than the simple teacher- or classroom centered education