Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
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Learning is an active and engaged process
: Instead of being told what to do or how
to solve problems, students within a PBL atmosphere are to generate their own learning
issues. It is expected that a sense of ownership should be born, leading to greater
cognitive engagement. Students are actively engaged in working at tasks situated in
an authentic setting, which should lead to greater ability in transfer to other real-world
contexts.
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Learning is a process of knowledge construction
: PBL purports that learners construct
their own knowledge. The constructivist epistemology states that the known is internal
to the knower and is subjectively constructed based on individual responses to
experience. Thus, in order to harness the reality of learning, we need to consider the
opportunity to find knowledge for oneself, contrast one's understanding of that
knowledge with others' understanding, and refine or restructure knowledge as more
relevant experience is gained.
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Learners function at a metacognitive level
: Constructivist learning focuses on
initiative thinking activities rather than working on the “right answer the teacher
wants.” Students generate their own strategies for problem formulation and possible
solutions. The instructor's role is that of a facilitator, a guide, or a coach, probing
students' thinking, monitoring their activities, and generally keeping the process
moving. Thus, PBL should promote metacognition through encouraging students to
reflect upon the problem-solving process. It is believed that reflection on recent
experiences is an effective method of learning.
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Learning involves social negotiation
: We accept the constructivist perspective that
knowledge is socially negotiated. The quality or depth of one's understanding can only
be determined in a social environment, where we can see if our understanding can
accommodate the issues and views of others and to see if there are points of view that
we could usefully incorporate into our understanding. A learning community, where
ideas are discussed and understanding is enriched, is critical to the development of our
students into self-directed work teams of software professionals.
REMARKS FOR CONTINUING CHALLENGE
It is experienced that the conventional approach to education remains the instructivist
one, in which knowledge is perceived to flow from experts to novices. This transmissive view
of learning is most evident in the emphasis on lectures, in the use of textbooks to prescribe
reading, and in the nature of tutorials and assessment methods. It assumes that the process
of good teaching is one of simplification of the truth in order to reduce student confusion.
Yet, this simplification could deny students the opportunity to apply their learning to dynamic
situations, such as quality software development through team-based collaboration. We
question the transferability of the instructivist learning and ask how much of that which is
assigned to academic learning ever gets applied to actual scenarios, when there is such a rapid
surge in knowledge commonly associated with the birth of the “Information Age.” This is
a transference problem. Actually, the content product of learning is assuming a less important
role relative to the process of learning, as the life of information content shortens, and the
need for continual learning increases. In designing the learning scenario for QSE to be injected
