Contextual Element

3.3.3 Contextual Element

The contextual elements were contributed by establishing partnerships with a local PBL practitioner and by collaborating with PhD colleagues. The partnerships began at the early stage of the research to comply with the DBR principles that emphasises on contextual consideration at the beginning of the research phase. Close collaboration between both parties is essential in order to understand the contextual possibilities and constraints such as facilities, management support, current students’

cognitive level, university’s vision and aim, and community of practice. These contextual issues can either serve as affordances or barriers to the PBL design implementation. Design-Based Research Collective (2003) highlighted that partnerships between researcher/designer and local practitioners will yield a design that is able to:

i. Address emerging local issues in efficient and timely manner ii. Define constraints of the local setting

iii. Highlight participant concern

Since the researcher was in Denmark while the local PBL practitioner was in Malaysia, the

partnership was made possible through emails and Skype. After several ongoing online discourses, both parties obtained insights on the following contextual elements:

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i. Students had different levels of PBL or student-centred experience; some had minimal exposure to student-centred learning like cooperative and group work; some had no experience with PBL at all, and some have experienced PBL in their previous semesters.

ii. The class would be held in a considerably big tutorial room. The chairs were movable with a small table attached to it

iii. Good internet connection was available in the tutorial room iv. Students normally brought their laptops in the class

v. Most students were part-time students

Another way to address the contextual elements is to learn from other Asian nations which also wish to implement PBL in their institutions. Accordingly, collaboration has been established with PhD colleagues who share the same vision of implementing PBL in their home institutions in India and Thailand. To compare common contextual challenges, possibilities and drivers between the three Asian nation (Malaysia, India and Thailand), Article 4 (see Appendix L for full article) was written. The collaboration gave insights on more general concerns with regards to PBL

implementation from contextual perspectives. Table 16 summarizes these findings.

Table 16: Research findings on the contextual elements Article 4

Title Addressing Contextual Elements and Developing Initial PBL Design:

Lesson Learned from Three Asian Universities

Research findings

i. Administrative system and supports

Obtained support from the university administrative due to the change of policy towards Outcome-Based Education (OBE). PBL is one of the teaching and learning strategy recommended to achieve the OBE ii. Motivation for PBL implementation

The main motivation is to improve students’ competencies profile and policy towards student-centred learning in higher education has provided an extrinsic motivation to adapt PBL in its higher education

iii. Curriculum or course structure

55 In the process of redesigning a PBL course, reallocating time for PBL

lessons or activities within the existing course structure is applicable.

The educational setting of Malaysia allow some flexibility in rearranging and modifying the content of the (PBL) course to be learned. Despite it appear to have a rigid course structure to some extent, within that rigid structure there is a room to integrate PBL at different levels. This is the challenge for both designer/researcher and teacher to be creative in their decision making.

iv. Teaching and learning culture

Malaysian education systems appear to give importance to grade because it is viewed as the measurement of students’ achievement and quality. In contrast to PBL approach to learning, education values, plays a crucial role in learning process, not product. Implementing PBL is not about only understanding the concept, but it is about how to actually put the understanding of concept into the actual practice

v. Resources and Facilities

In the PBL environment, lecture room, tutorial room and group room, is the major required space for teaching and learning to take place. Though UPSI are well-equipped with lecture and tutorial rooms, it is not

designed for PBL learning environment. The issue of learning space could be resolved by effective and innovative use of available space. For example, space or small rooms could be reserved at the library, or reading hall for group work.

vi. Student Background

Current Malaysian university students have a minimum of 11 years of traditional schooling at primary and secondary level and knowledge is acquired by transmission. Teachers are expected to be the sole provider of knowledge while students are expected to reproduce the transmitted knowledge. Knowledge construction is definitely beyond their comfort zone. Exam-oriented, grade-emphasis school system is less favourable to deep understanding and skill development as demanded in PBL. With regard to their previous schooling background, it is important to prepare

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our students before embarking on PBL practice vii. Facilitation Style

To offset the shortage of facilitators, floating tutor to facilitate students learning is employed in Malaysian context. The facilitator will go around the groups to facilitate group work, and probing students´ group with questions that lead students activating their prior knowledge and experiences. Each group is also required to keep group´s logbook and reflection notes to monitor periodically their progression and to determine further scaffolding needed by each group.

The findings concluded that while it might be easy to tackle common contextual constraints and drivers, the specific ones should be attended carefully to minimize tensions from shifting towards an innovative learning practice. The different educational cultures (administration and resources, curriculum setting and teaching learning etc.) were used to inspire the development of PBL designs in the design phase. Contextual elements of the institute i.e. administration, staff, students,

curriculum, teaching learning practice and resources were aligned with the PBL approach for change of practice to take effect. It also showed in the above article´s summary that despite the challenges or barriers, possibilities are still there to implement PBL designs.