UK Centre for Materials Education
Working with you to enhance the student experience
Working with you to enhance the student experience
The Materials Department of Queen Mary University of London has introduced Problem Based Learning (PBL) into their undergraduate programme. Alongside traditional ways of program delivery like lectures, the students will work in teams on case studies in which realistic industrial problems are tackled. This form of education, known as PBL, is a mixture of technological and scientific education in which students actively learn to work on multidisciplinary problems.
The objective of the PBL approach is to encourage students as creative professionals with the ability to integrate various aspects of the teaching programme. PBL focuses especially on integrating and applying knowledge as well as on developing general materials engineering skills. This year PBL was introduced at first year level but in the future it will run throughout the whole undergraduate programme.
Aims of PBL at Queen Mary:
For the first year level, the PBL component comprises six case studies and training courses. During the year, every student is part of a student group of around six students supervised by a tutor. The tutor, generally a member of staff, neither acts as a chairperson, nor a lecturer in the traditional sense but as a person who asks questions and monitors progress. The tutor does not impose his or her own knowledge and standards on the students but helps them to find their own way in the field. The tutor also acts as the formal assessor of the individual students.
The PBL groups meet weekly for a minimum of 2 hours. In these meetings self-study assignments are formulated. The case studies are generally multidisciplinary by nature and integration of knowledge plays an important role. For example, in contrast to traditional practicals, students now have to design their own experiments needed to solve the problem.
By weekly rotation, students play three specific roles within the student group: chairperson, writer and minutes secretary. During a group meeting, the chairperson has the task of directing the conversation. The writer takes down important matters on a white board or flip chart. All relevant information is finally incorporated in the minutes of the meeting.
To achieve an effective and systematic method of working, group meetings are held in a structured way. A stepped-plan is used, which include steps such as defining the problem and brainstorming. After each meeting, the group formulate self-study assignments. In between meetings, students perform self-study assessments and report back to the group at the next meeting.
The case study is completed either with a written group report, a poster presentation and/or an oral presentation. The final assessment consists of a group component, which is a written report, poster or oral presentation and an individual component, which concerns the functioning of each individual student within the group as determined by the tutor.
Some examples of case studies used are:
Dr Ton Peijs will report next year on the outcome of introducing PBL to the first year level at Queen Mary and Westfield College, with feedback from staff and students on the effectiveness of this method.
