Students’ Experiences of Learning Using a Problem-Based Instructional Approach

Grant recipients: Margaret Insley and Barb Bloemhof, Department of Economics

(Completed. Project Timeframe August 2012 - July 2013)

Project description

The project explores how student learning is experienced in a second-year survey course taught using problem-based learning after the McMaster model. Students are invited to participate in a variety of activities that form data for a mixed-methods analysis of the learning experience.

Findings

Picture of Marget Insley and Barb Bloemhof

Students at the University of Waterloo have a strongly favourable experience of the course format, which gives them significant autonomy and responsibility for deciding what is worth learning and how to learn what is not already known. They already come to this class with a fairly high deep learning orientation, but their responses on the course perception questionnaire does improve according to pre-post measures. Most students cite improved facility with dealing with complexity; the majority of students develop a more nuanced model of how their own learning happens, and cite valuable transferrable skills as their dominant takeaways

Dissemination and impact

Students found the approach transformative and liberating; they spoke of new confidence with techniques of economic rhetoric and communication, as well as a refreshing insight into relevance and topicality of application. The proficiencies used are identified as thinking like an economist (Siegfried et al., 1991; Hansen 1986) and complement the broader agenda for general economics education outlined in Salemi and Siegfried (1999) and University of Waterloo’s degree level expectations (https://uwaterloo.ca/academic-reviews/undergraduate-programs/degree-level-expectations). Colleagues in two economics departmental seminars were interested in the project and receptive of information about student-centered instructional approaches.