An appropriate technique of facilitation using students’participation level measurement in the PBL environment

• Autores: A. Masek
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 32, no. Extra 1 (Parte B ), 2016, págs. 402-408
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Students’ participation in the PBL group discussions has always been associated with the role of facilitators, who areresponsible for the effectiveness of tutorial sessions. Facilitators should be aware of how their students participate in small-group discussions and thus adopt suitable facilitation techniques to encourage active student participation. However,determining students’ levels of participation in a PBL small-group discussion is a very subjective matter. As a result, it isdifficult to assess the effectiveness of particular techniques or approaches that are used for facilitation. Therefore, theobjectives of this paper are as follows: first, examine students’ participation in PBL small group discussions; and second,propose an appropriate technique of facilitation, with respect to the group members’ participation levels. Participants forthe study comprised the first-year polytechnic electrical engineering students, who were undergoing ten-week PBLaccording to the fourteen-step procedures. These studentsparticipated in small-group(four to fivemembers) discussions tosolve five electrical engineering problems in a two-week block period. The students’ participation was observed andvideotaped, as well as getting students to use a fixed reflective journal to record their thoughts after attending all the tutorialsessions. Our findings revealed that four classifications can be used to explain students’ level of participation namely,behaviour (active-passive), oral (silent-talkative), group skills (Excellent-poor), and confidence (high-low). Theseclassifications can be grouped into several combinations in order to explain the students’ levels of participation insmall-group PBL discussions. Premised on the findings, several suggestions are proposed to develop a facilitationtechnique: to create an environment conducive to discussion sessions and encourage active student participation.