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What students learn in problem-based learning: a process analysis

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Abstract

This study aimed to provide an account of how learning takes place in problem-based learning (PBL), and to identify the relationships between the learning-oriented activities of students with their learning outcomes. First, the verbal interactions and computer resources studied by nine students for an entire PBL cycle were recorded. The relevant concepts articulated and studied individually while working on the problem-at-hand were identified as units of analysis and counted to demonstrate the growth in concepts acquired over the PBL cycle. We identified two distinct phases in the process—an initial concept articulation, and a later concept repetition phase. To overcome the sample-size limitations of the first study, we analyzed the verbal interactions of, and resources studied, by another 35 students in an entire PBL cycle using structural equation modeling. Results show that students’ verbal contributions during the problem analysis phase strongly influenced their verbal contributions during self-directed learning and reporting phases. Verbal contributions and individual study influenced similarly the contributions during the reporting phase. Increased verbalizations of concepts during the reporting phase also led to higher achievement. We found that collaborative learning is significant in the PBL process, and may be more important than individual study in determining students’ achievement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Educational Development, Republic Polytechnic, 9 Woodlands Avenue 9, Singapore, 738964, Singapore

    Elaine H. J. Yew

  2. Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Henk G. Schmidt

Authors
  1. Elaine H. J. Yew
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  2. Henk G. Schmidt
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Correspondence to Elaine H. J. Yew.

Appendix

Appendix

Basic Science problem that students worked on for the day

Code of Life

I am the family face;

Flesh perishes, I live on,

Projecting trait and trace

Through time to times anon,

And leaping from place to place

Over oblivion.

From “Heredity” by Thomas Hardy

(First published in Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses, Macmillan, 1917)

The idea of the gene came first. The gene is the thing that carries information about the living organism. The gene tells if one’s hair is black and eyes are blue. The gene tells if one can curl one’s tongue. The gene carries the ‘family face’ that goes ‘through time to times anon’ from mother to daughter, father to son, or the other ways across, over time.

Is the gene a substance you can find in your body, or a kind of a soul-like invisible thing?

Explore the concept of a gene and the role it plays in an organism. Is it possible that the gene is represented by an identifiable molecule, one that is able to carry information akin to a line of code, giving it the ability to execute highly detailed tasks? Determine the qualities such a molecule should have.

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Yew, E.H.J., Schmidt, H.G. What students learn in problem-based learning: a process analysis. Instr Sci 40, 371–395 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-011-9181-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-011-9181-6

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