All must take part in creating an open and accepting atmosphere where everyone can participate and all questions and suggestions are treated with equal respect. The first meeting should begin with a clarification of expectations.
The method of working with PBL cases has seven steps:
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Understand the situation/clarify terminology
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Identify the problem
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Suggest possible causes (hypothesize)
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Connect problems and causes
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Decide what type of information is needed
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Obtain information
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Apply the information
The student's responsibilities/duties
- Attendance at the group meetings.. The outcome of the group work is dependent on every member’s attendance.
- Active role at the meetings.. All students are expected to participate and come prepared. This means having obtained the information that the group has decided is necessary to complete the assignment
- Ensure the process moves forward by complying with the seven steps
- Challenge each other through debate and discussion. Review the reasoning behind conclusions and assertions.
- At the end of the second meeting any new assignments will be evaluated together with the PBL tutor.A form must be filled in and handed in to the Head of the semester.
- Do not disturb the other groups. Contact the semester coordinator if your tutor does not show up. If this occurs in the first meeting of the week, you will get the week's assignment from the Semester coordinator to enable you to start working. If possible, you will get a substitute tutor.
The tutor’s responsibilities/duties:
- Ensure that the students follow the necessary steps for logical problem solving (the seven steps). In the early phase of the assignment the tutor should contribute to the discussion, help with the choices being made, and make sure the students are focusing on the appropriates aspects of the problem.
- Ensure that the students are on the right track as to the information they will research. This can be accomplished by asking questions and requesting summaries. To do this the teacher must have adequate knowledge of the semester’s aims and know what the students have learned in the past.
- Ensure that the students’ goals concerning information acquisition are realistic. The tutor must steer the students in the right direction, for instance if their goals seem too comprehensive or if they spend too much time on tangential aspects of the problem.
- The tutor should use questions to make sure the students to an adequate depth in their analysis of the problem, not just use superficial knowledge and explanations.
- When there is conflict within the group, the tutor should help the group see the problem – not just solve the problem.
- Give advice on where and how information can be obtained.
- Invite all the students to an individual student-teacher talk