Creative and Critical Thinking Skills in Problem-based Learning Environments

Examining the performance and attitudes of sixth graders during their use of a problem-based hypermedia learning environment

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop and evaluate a debiasing-based approach to assessing the learning materials in problem-based learning (PBL) environments. Background: Research in cognitive debiasing suggests nine debiasing strategies improve decision-making. Given the large number of decisions made in semester-long, problem-based learning projects, multiple tools and techniques help students make decisions. However, instructors may struggle to identify the specific tools or techniques that could be modified to best improve students’ decision-making in the project. Furthermore, a structured approach for identifying these modifications is lacking. Such an approach would match the debiasing strategies with the tools and techniques. Methodology: This debiasing framework for the PBL environment is developed through a study of debiasing literature and applied within an e-commerce course using the Model for Improvement, continuous improvement process, as an illustrative case to show its potential. In addition, a survey of the students, archival information, and participant observation provided feedback on the debiasing framework and its ability to assess the tools and techniques within the PBL environment. Contribution: This paper demonstrates how debiasing theory can be used within a continuous improvement process for PBL courses. By focusing on a cognitive debiasing-based approach, this debiasing framework helps instructors 1) identify what tools and techniques to change in an PBL environment, and 2) assess which tools and techniques failed to debias the students adequately, providing potential changes for future cycles. Findings: Using the debiasing framework in an e-commerce course with significant PBL elements provides evidence that this framework can be used within IS courses and more broadly. In this particular case, the change identified in a prior cycle proved effective and additional issues were identified for improvement. Recommendations for Practitioners: With the growing usage of semester-long PBL projects in business schools, instructors need to ensure that their design of the projects incorporates techniques that improve student learning and decision making. This approach provides a means for assessing the quality of that design. Recommendation for Researchers: This study uses debiasing theory to improve course techniques. Researchers interested in assessment, course improvement, and program improvement should incorporate debiasing theory within PBL environments or other types of decision-making scenarios. Impact on Society: Increased awareness of cognitive biases can help instructors, students, and professionals make better decisions and recommendations. By developing a framework for evaluating cognitive debiasing strategies, we help instructors improve projects that prepare students for complex and multifaceted real-world projects. Future Research: The approach could be applied to multiple contexts, within other courses, and more widely within information systems to extend this research. The framework might also be refined to make it more concise, integrated with assessment, or usable in more contexts.

A systematic exchange of experiences with new methods of learning and teaching and new learning environments is of great importance for the successful implementation of innovations in schools. The present report describes some examples of successful innovations from different countries. The projects chosen are based on the problem-based learning approach (PBL). Further, these projects have been carried out in cooperation with and evaluated by research teams. Diverse sources of information were used to search for successful example projects, including personal contacts, current research literature and the Internet. The results of this search show that numerous problem-based projects are already being put into practice in different countries. However, finding school projects with research partnerships proved difficult. The reasons for this are manifold. Institutional or bureaucratic impediments are but one aspect of this. Furthermore, studying the different projects in different countries showed how differently the concept of problem-based learning is understood and applied. The best-practice projects discussed here will serve as examples, and as motivation for further problem-based learning environments. The evaluation of such theoretically established computer-supported learning environments constitutes a particular challenge. Some initial implications for the further development of problem-based computer-supported learning environments can be drawn from the discussion of the chosen example projects. These implications, however, require further investigation.

This study reports an investigation into the impact of a structured foundational staff development program on new academics in their role as classroom tutors in a problem-based learning (PBL) environment. The program aims to provide a systematic framework to share knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for new academics to be competent and confident tutors who can provide valued and valuable learning experiences for students’ learning in a PBL environment. To measure the outcomes of this program, Kirkpatrick’s (1994) framework was adopted, and outcomes were evaluated according to reaction, learning, and behavior. Quantitative data were collected in the form of student feedback scores, tutor confidence, and attitudes toward teaching, while a post-program survey was used to collect qualitative data. The results indicate that the program had brought about gains in knowledge regarding principles and/or strategies of self-directed learning, as well as a detectable change in academics’ orientation towards teaching and learning to a more developmental perspective. Moreover, participants noted that they were able to apply their learning in terms of promoting key student behaviors in PBL, such as collaborative learning. The evaluation suggests that, for the successful implementation of PBL, it is important for a structured foundational training program to address not only the essential elements of PBL, but also the role of the tutor, especially in terms of addressing the teaching beliefs of staff, and helping them to adapt to the constructivist belief system embedded in the PBL environment.

There is a convergence unfolding between two formerly unique and separate areas of teaching research methodology: distance education and problem-based learning (PBL) environments. Much has been published on each field independently, however, in the modern-era of online, distance, and hybrid educational programs there is a need for more case and experiential-based learning activities which can effectively measure stated learning objectives. Trends in education have led to the development of various methods to instruct courses and conduct research online. Teaching research methodology and pedagogy have evolved to include video capture, remote conferencing, and other real-time communications techniques allowing faculty and students to collaborate across great distances. Meanwhile, PBL environments have been used extensively in teaching medicine, clinical practice, law, business/management, and many other disciplines to improve student learning. This has been further accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic through the use of technologies like Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting, Google Hangout Meet, etc. and the availability of PBL-ready environments in breakout rooms and asynchronous simulated projects. Student preference data from 2020 are reported as part of this study. One example of this merger between online delivery and PBLs was the development of a PBL statistical process control (PBL-SPC) module. A cross-functional academic team was created across both a college of business and college of education in which a PBL-SPC module was developed based on a real-life situation in which students immerse themselves in a potato chip factory environment. The motivation for the PBL-SPC was that this is a challenging topic to cover which students often find difficult to relate to and/or boring. Three different scenarios were developed and students, as individuals or in teams, must traverse the simulated factory to assess the situation. Learning outcomes are measured by the course instructors and the PBL environment is being used by faculty around the world. Additionally, the PBL-SPC module has now been scaled to other applications such as six-sigma simulated project training during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pedagogical methods should be interactive, stimulate learning, improve the learning outcomes / critical thinking, and enhance student experience. This paper proposes that merging the effective and tech-friendly pedagogical methods of PBL-SPC, with the right modalities and model of online delivery, can help achieve these aforesaid goals. Even more, it can deliver a great opportunity to educators and institutions worldwide for advancing the reach of education.

This descriptive correlation research aimed to determine the educators’ instructional strategies, learning environment and performance among State Universities and Colleges in Panay Island, Philippines for the School Year 2023-2024. The independent variables included the educators’ instructional strategies and learning environment in laboratory classrooms, while the dependent variable was their performance. The respondents were the total population of 71 BS Industrial Technology instructors in the State Universities and Colleges in Panay Island which were purposively selected. They were classified according to their age, educational attainment, length of service, academic rank, and SUC level. The descriptive correlation research design was used in this study. The researcher modified questionnaire used for data gathering was subjected for validation and reliability testing. The statistical tools used were the Frequency Count, Percentage, Mean, Rank, Mann Whitney U-Test, Kruskal Wallis H-Test, Chi-Square and Spearman’s rho. All statistical computations were processed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) Software. The margin of error was set at .05 alpha. Findings revealed that the educators utilized instructional strategies aligned with the requirement of the BIT program. They assessed the learning environment in laboratory classrooms are compliant with safety standards with available supply and equipment and maintained by responsible personnel. The performance of educators exceeded expectations. All goals, objectives and targets were achieved above the established standards. Their instructional strategies and assessment on the learning environment in laboratory classrooms is not determined by their educational attainment, length of service, academic rank and SUC level. However, their age determined their assessment. The performance of educators is independent from their instructional strategies and assessment on learning environment in laboratory classrooms. Finally, the instructional strategies of educators, their assessment on learning environment in laboratory classrooms and performance are not related with each other.

The transition from the teacher-centric learning environment to the problem-based learning (PBL) environment may not be smooth due to students’ expectations of getting direct support from the teacher. However, a teacher also tries to teach students the skills to be an independent learner. The aim of this study is to improve the students learning experience in the PBL environment by improving the e-tivity (online activity) design in a blended online teaching module in Mechanical Engineering (ME). A mixed research method approach helped to analyse the students’ learning experience in the module. The result shows that the present design of the e-tivities does not provide students with opportunities to study effectively in the PBL environment online, and proposed an improved design of the e-tivities. It implies the need to create e-tivities by taking into consideration the students’ learning styles to encourage active participation, to provide rich student-tutor interactions for prompt feedback on the students’ performance and hold workshops to improve the facilitation skills of the academic staff in the PBL environment. Further study suggests evaluating the effectiveness of the designed e-tivities on the students’ academic performance, and the development of the skills needed to study effectively in a PBL environment.

This paper aims to reveal that an integration of Problem Based Learning (PBL) with encouraging students' motivation is the key factor to increase the students' motivation working throughout the long term project, to improve a better classroom environment, and to enhance the quality of students' works. PBL approach is a learning method which students learn from an experience of problem solving. Students have to learn about planning, critical thinking and decision making while doing various activities in PBL environment. However, only the PBL approach itself is not the effective way to grab students' attention in learning. The best time to learn for student is when they have an intrinsic motivation on the particular focus. Thus, encouraging motivation along with the PBL approach is needed in doing the film production project. The data of students' attitude toward this integration were collected from pre- and post- project questionnaire while the film quality of this Royal Project Sa Ngo project was evaluated by 5 professional experts. The result has shown that the integration of PBL approach with encouraging students' motivation was a better learning method comparing with the traditional PBL approach. In term of classroom environment, the students agree that the intrinsic motivation assists them in handling with each step of their project effectively. In addition, the quality of students' work had improved from the previous project which was conducted with the traditional PBL method only. In conclusion, the combination between the PBL approach and encouraging students' motivation assisted the students to work enthusiastically throughout the project with the better classroom environment and the high quality of work.

<span lang="EN-US">The problem-based learning (PBL) methodologies are considered adequate for core engineering courses. The integration between cooperative learning and PBL methodologies establishes an encouraging environment for the students. However, for effective implementation of cooperative problem-based learning (CPBL) environment, close supervision of students’ experiences is vital, and deficient areas are to be improved, as PBL is a dynamic process. A study was conducted for the first-year undergraduate engineering class taught under the PBL environment. The objective was to evaluate the course by the preview of students, for highlighting weak domains in the teaching methodology for future improvements. A course experience questionnaire was designed considering PBL implications, with 35 question items, and 31 responses were collected by the end of the semester. Three different analyses were performed on the collected data, i.e., descriptive statistics and Cronbach’s alpha, Student's t-test, and Pearson Chi-square test. The achieved results supported the effective adoption of the PBL system by the students. However, few areas were highlighted requiring special consideration, such as PBL workload, pressure due to extra course content, and assessment opportunities under the PBL system. It was proved that maximum students considered PBL methodologies convenient and effective for learning than the traditional learning approach.</span>

The study is aimed to investigate the strategies and preparations for building an active learning environment. The study involved five students who had a good experience in teaching for at least one month to two months and are considered capable of creating an active learning environment in the classroom. The in-depth interview structure conducted in this study has two main objectives, namely: (1) to identify what kind of strategies that can be applied to implement the active learning environment in the classroom; and (2) to find out what must be prepared by the pre-service English teachers in conducting the teaching and learning process at school. The findings of the study showed that there are four main strategies and three main things that should be prepared by the participants in building an active learning environment. The strategies are: Combining student's interests with instructional media, Providing motivational videos to improve student's enthusiasm, Applying TPR method to enhance student's vocabulary, and Practicing English through web-based learning. Meanwhile, the preparations to run the strategies are: Adjusting the teaching environment, Selecting learning resources, and Supplying interactive media to increase student's interest in learning English. Thus, these findings can be used as reference for English teachers who are facing the problems in building an active learning environment during teaching and learning process.

Recently the process-product paradigm for research on teaching has undergone revision. Notable among updates to this paradigm are what Doyle (1980) calls the "mediating process paradigm," or what Winne (1981) refers to as the "cognitive mediational paradigm." Both views postulate that teachers do not directly influence student product variables, such as achievement. Rather, teachers influence students by causing them to think and behave in particular ways during teaching. These mediating events, in turn, may lead to changes in outcome variables. Hence, the effects of teaching on learning may be mediated by students' behaviors and cognitive processing during instruction. The cognitive mediational paradigm opens up to question the match between ways researchers hypothesize that learners

This study examined first-year engineering students’ perceptions of psychological safety during a five-month course designed to ease their transition into a systemic problem-based learning (PBL) environment. The course included creativity-focused teamwork exercises. Q-factor analysis of 27 students revealed four distinct perspectives: (1) individual efforts within teamwork, (2) individual efficacy in teamwork, (3) team management and performance, and (4) teamwork for idea generation. Although students found the creativity exercises beneficial for enhancing collaboration, most did not feel these activities contributed to their sense of psychological safety. The results illustrate a complex overview of the aspects that first-year engineering students find meaningful regarding their sense of safety through their experience with creativity-focused interventions in a PBL environment. The study offers recommendations for revising the intervention to better support student learning and psychological safety. Practical implications include strategies to improve the experience of first-year engineering students as they adjust to PBL environments.

This study aimed to define the effect of problem based learning on student learning achivement and the perspectives of the srudents on the problem based learning environment. In the study, “Computer hardware” unit was selected and the problem based learning environment was designed in terms of this unit. During the study, the researcher gave students a real life problem, provided them with necessary information, and guided them in all the problem solving process. Students formed groups, shared tasks, and solved the real life problem by investigating on the Internet. Then, students\' perspectives on problem based learning environment were taken by using the “Problem Based Learning Assessment Form” and “Individual and Group Assessment Form”. The results revealed high student learning achivement in the problem based learning

The purpose of this study was to investigate the study general trends with regards to Web 2.0 technologies supporting problem-based learning (PBL) environments. A systematic literature review was applied to analyse studies published in this area, with a total of 18 articles included in the review. The content analysis method was applied in the study. The results indicated that the emergence of studies in this area was in 2007. The studies were conducted in different research domains. The qualitative research paradigm was the most frequently used, and higher education students the most preferred study group in the articles. Wiki was the most integrated Web 2.0 tool in PBL environments. Interview was the most selected data collection tool, with qualitative analysis methods the most used in the articles. The variables investigated the most in the studies were perception about the effectiveness of PBL and achievement. The effectiveness of Web 2.0 technologies supporting PBL was the most frequently reported finding. Therefore, the current study was able to identify the recent trends in this research area. Based on the results, the study put forward suggested implications for future research.

In order to improve the students' learning experience in the Mechanical Engineering (ME) modules, a problem based learning (PBL) approach is used and the learning activities are designed to provide students with an opportunity to learn theory and perform the experiments to develop a better understanding of the subject. The aim of this action research is to investigate the effect of the theoretical and laboratory based instructions in the Engineering Applications module on the students' academic performance. The sample is composed of 106 students from Edinburgh Napier University (ENU) in Scotland. The data is comprised of the marks obtained by the students in the summative design assessment, based on the theoretical studies and the two online quizzes based on the laboratory experiments. The results show that the module's instructions are mostly focused on the experimental studies which indicates that the experimental studies are not supporting the theoretical studies. It illustrates that the theoretical studies and the experimental studies indirectly support each other. It also shows that the students are not provided with an adequate opportunities to develop the engineering application skills. This implies a need to constructively align such modules, in order to improve the student's learning experience. The concept mapping tools can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching practices on the students learning experience. The learning activities design should take into consideration the learning styles of the students to encourage them to actively participate in the PBL environment. In addition, the educational institutions should provide support to the academics to improve their facilitation skills in the PBL environment. A suggestion for further research is made to evaluate the effectiveness of the theoretical and experimental teaching instructions based on the Bloom's Taxonomy on the students learning experience.