In 2001, a group of lecturers from Temasek Polytechnic (TP) received a grant of $176,000 from The Enterprise Challenge to test trial the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approach to education, which aims to teach students how to learn and keep learning for life. The project has since proved to be effective in unleashing the learning potential of young minds.
Educators today face the dilemma of preparing graduates for immediate employment versus lifelong learning. Teachers spend most of their time teaching content to their students, so that they would be ready for work based on the amount of factual knowledge provided and internalised. Little attention is given to develop lifelong learning skills.
Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is an innovation in education that resolves this dilemma by delivering content in a way that prepares graduates to be work-ready and change-ready to meet new complex challenges. PBL places students at the centre of the learning process. In the classroom, they are made to participate in activities that simulate situations in the working world. This allows them to develop and practise the very skills that are valued by employers, and to acquire relevant information for future reference. PBL is about going beyond content and preparing students for whatever lies beyond school. It is about learning for life.
Reforming education at TP
The TEC project set out to reform education at TP. The process was about challenging the known, questioning the premise that Singapore has the best education platform, discovering the unknown, and deriving another perspective and insight on education.The diploma course in marketing offered at the Business School served as the test bed to pilot the PBL approach. For this project, the teaching staff transformed the marketing curriculum to meet the demands of the workplace.
Multiple benefits for stakeholders
Communication skills are also emphasised in PBL. PBL has proven to benefit all the key stakeholders - students, staff, industry partners and overseas education institutions. Through PBL, students acquire integrated and relevant knowledge, and develop skills in self-directed learning, problem-solving, teamwork and communication. The teaching staff at TP benefit from acquiring updated and relevant knowledge, and continually improving their skills. Their students are also more motivated to learn. The industry partners stand to gain too, as minimum training is required for the graduates, who can be immediately employed. Furthermore, PBL develops graduates who are nimble-minded, ready for change, innovative and entrepreneurial. Overseas educational institutions welcome PBL graduates because they are innovative and creative, can think out-of-the-box, participate more in discussions, and work well with people from different cultures.
Positive review
• “With PBL, I learnt to find what I need to solve the problems. Learning has become so much more meaningful and fun. I am now better able to retain what I have learnt.”
Michelle Teo, graduate with Diploma in Marketing
• “Students are not the only people who are called upon to change their mindset to accept the philosophy of PBL. Staff members have been asked to make a quantum leap of faith... from the comfort zone of the known to the wilderness of the unknown. Anyone poised between a familiar education model and a lustrous but untested education concept is bound to ask a few questions: ‘Will my skills be as valuable in this new world? How much will I be asked to unlearn?’ These are genuine, heartfelt questions that confront the teaching staff.”
Dominic Seah, Section Head, Diploma in Marketing
• “What I like about your marketing curriculum is that you have taken the effort to identify high impact marketing problems that cut across subject boundaries. Your curriculum will develop graduates that are able to integrate multiple disciplines and rapidly adapt to any working environment through continuous self-learning.”
Tan Eng Lock, Director, Ansoff Associates, CEO Roundtable, Nov 2001
• “I would like to commend your team for your proposed education model which I know will produce thinkers and doers who are capable of sustaining their progress at work in our rapid environment”.
Mr Seah Liang Chiang, President, Young Entrepreneurs’ Organisation, Nov 2001
• “Your approach to problem-based learning is both bold and well positioned to capitalise on what we know about the emerging developments in management practice and how managers learn most effectively.”
Professor Roger Collins, Australian Graduate School, University of New South Wales, Australia. |
