Imagine a lecture hall of 400 students. There are the students at the front of the classroom who are ready to learn and eager for the lecture that is about to begin. Then there are the others who prefer to retain their right to daydream or sleep in the back rows without being seen.
These students at the back of the room are the “silent lurkers” that University of Toronto at Mississauga professor Dr. Judith Poe wants to awaken.
As a distinguished lecturer in the department of Chemical & Physical Sciences at UTM, as well as a recent recipient of the President’s Teaching Award, Dr. Poe was invited to speak at the “Ates Tanin” lecture on alternative methods of teaching chemistry at the university level.
According to Dr. Poe, the traditional method of lecturing really only works for the front row students. In order to actively engage students in the learning process, course material should be presented in an appealing manner along with practical application, so that students are not left wondering “Why would I ever need to use this in real life?”
At UTM, Dr. Poe has tried an approach called Problem-Based Learning (PBL), which strives to promote active learning and critical thinking. Rather than giving a lecture and subsequently assigning practice problems from the course textbook, PBL initiates the learning process through an initial problem. Starting with this problem, students must identify the question being asked, the information that has been provided, and the facts they are missing. Unlike the straightforward problems in a textbook, this initial PBL problem requires students to use other resources, like the Internet or the library, to come to a conclusion that may not have a clear-cut solution. Perhaps the definition of the problem itself may change as more information is gathered.
For those in academia, this method of refining knowledge in light of new information may sound strikingly similar to the research process, which is also one of the many skills students are exposed to through PBL.
South of the border, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Polytechnic State University have applied an approach called “studio-learning,” in which students conduct lectures, tutorials, and practicals in the same room. Students are split into smaller groups, and each one acquires a table, laptop, and any other necessary materials to complete assigned work or related activities.
While this method of learning is able to actively engage students, problems inevitably arise in each group, especially when the workload is not shared evenly. In order to avoid this problem, Dr. Poe has created virtual PBL projects, where students who would like to actively participate and engage in discussions with others may do so on an online discussion board. Those who would rather not actively participate can read the contents of the discussion board and still be included in the dialogue.
Preliminary results over the past few terms have shown that the number of visits to the discussion boards far exceed the number of postings, suggesting that Dr. Poe is indeed reaching out to the “silent lurkers.” Students may even improve their writing capabilities through continuous postings and emailed communication. According to Dr. Poe, PBL students have shown the same aptitude on standardized tests as non-PBL students, while non-PBL students perform less optimally on PBL-based tests.
Critics of Poe’s web-based approach say that online methods lack face-to-face communication. However, this may simply be due to personal preference. They suggest that PBL is not able to cover as much material as the traditional method of lecturing, though it does seem to instill invaluable problem-solving skills. Students may also not use reliable resources for their information, in which case it may be up to the university to teach these students early on how to access journals and other reputable publications.
As for the amount of work required to set up PBL-based lesson plans, it requires more preparation than the traditional lecture to devise suitable problems and possible solutions. When asked about the number of hours she spends answering questions regarding PBL problems from her students, Dr. Poe laughs and admits that it is a six-day job, but if no one answers their questions, then students may lose their interest and momentum. Despite her workload, the professor is not ready to let them revert back to their silent lurking.
