Problem-Based Learning: New Facilitator Workshop
This workshop was held at Oxford Brookes University on Tuesday 5th September and was attended by 22 delegates from across 6 health care disciplines. It was facilitated by Carolyn Gibbon, Principal Lecturer in Learning and Teaching, University of Central Lancashire and Helen Bulpitt, Senior Adviser from the Health Science and Practice subject centre was in attendance.
Workshop title: Problem-based Learning – New Facilitator Workshop
Venue: Oxford Brookes University.
Date held: 5 Septemer 2006
Presentation from the workshop
The workshop was aimed at colleagues who had little or no experience of problem-based learning. It was a full day event with the following learning outcomes:
* Define PBL as a philosophy and as a learning and teaching method
* Determine the role of the facilitator in PBL
* Experience the role of the student within a PBL session
* Discuss managing a PBL group
* Discuss facilitation skills in relation to assessment, progression and student support.
The following evaluative comments are from the facilitator and include comments from the participant’s evaluations.
This was the first time the facilitator had run this workshop with a mixed of disciplines, and whilst it was challenging at times, everyone’s contributions ensured a rich learning experience. The workshop has been run on a number of occasions before with nursing, including international, colleagues and each one is unique – like a PBL group. Participants are usually interactive, with lots of questions, but their approaches to the PBL process varies and this workshop was no exception.
The morning was taken up with a power-point presentation explaining what PBL was, what the process was and discussion about roles. This was interspersed with practical examples from experiences. In the afternoon there was a role play whereby participants took on student roles. The day ended by briefly looking at assessment and evaluation in PBL and the point was stressed that this area was a workshop in itself.
From a facilitator point of view the day went well, it kept a good pace and there were enough breaks to help participants keep on track. Participants were keen to ask questions and discuss points. The start of the afternoon session was the role play and the group formed a circle as they would encourage their students to do. The group was slightly larger than expected, but it demonstrated to them the complexities of group sizes and the implications for resource management when adopting a PBL methodology. Participants then acted as students in the way that had been predicted in the morning session, much to everyone’s amusement. The group decided not to make ‘ground rules’, but quickly found that in fact they are useful and they wished they had done so, when the benefits became clear. The group also decided to follow the PBL process with the scenario provided, but at the same time analyse their reactions. This was unusual, but beneficial as it highlighted points made in the morning and validated them through participant experience.
From the evaluations it was clear that the participants would have preferred longer on the role play in order to develop their skills further. It was also suggested that maybe the role play could take place in the morning to cut down the power-point slides. Both are good suggestions and the workshop format will be reviewed with these points in mind. The day is an intense workshop and could be carried over two days very easily; however the workshop is deliberately intended to be an introduction to the PBL facilitator role. Participants were provided with a handbook which contained some guidelines and a wide range of references and websites to support their development to take away with them.
Participants also were encouraged to join the PBL Special Interest Group and to contact the facilitator should they require further advice.
To view the PBL New Facilitator Handbook click here
Carolyn Gibbon.
September 2006
