Recipient of 1999 Hesburgh Certificate of Excellence

Nomination for the Hesburgh Award

Synopsis Significance of the Program Program Objectives and Implementation Program Impact and Success References

Appendices: Chronology of Funded Projects Related to Problem-Based Learning Selected Presentations and Publications Impact of the Problem-Based Learning Effort at the University of Delaware ITUE Fellows and Courses, 1997-98

Synopsis

In 1993, a handful of science faculty at the University of Delaware, concerned about how well their students were learning, began to use problem-based learning in their courses. This initial grassroots effort to improve undergraduate instruction has since cascaded into a thriving faculty-driven reform of the undergraduate experience at Delaware.

At the center is the Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education, established by faculty to train and encourage other faculty to implement active and problem-based learning in their courses. Fellows of the Institute receive hands-on experience in employing these strategies, as well as individual mentoring from faculty experienced with these techniques. To date, over 25% of the faculty have participated either in this Institute or in workshops on problem-based learning, and more than 150 courses have been or are targeted for transformation.

In addition to the Institute, other developments include the formation of a peer tutoring program, the incorporation of problem-based learning into large general education courses, a thorough reform of courses in the College of Business and Economics, and the dissemination of UD's successful approach to research-based education as a model for other institutions. In each of these programs, faculty are helping other faculty break the cycle of "teaching as we were taught", in order to provide our students with a learning environment powerful enough for the challenges that lie ahead.     (top)

Significance of the Program

What attributes should a successful college graduate possess? Few would disagree with the list below, developed by leaders from academia, government, and the corporate world at the Wingspread Conference [1] in 1994:

• The ability to use technology effectively in order to gain and apply new knowledge and skills
• The ability to arrive at informed judgements through effective problem definition, gathering and evaluating pertinent information, and solution development
• The possession of attitudes conducive to functioning in a global community, including: adaptability; motivation and persistence; ease with diversity; ethical and civil behavior; creativity and resourcefulness; and the ability to work in teams
• Technical competence in a given field
• The ability to employ all of the above to address specific problems in complex, real-world settings in which the development of workable solutions is required.

How can university faculty, whose own formative educational experiences were based largely on a different model, prepare today's students to meet these challenges? The University of Delaware (UD) has found an exciting answer in problem-based learning (PBL). In this mode of instruction, complex problems rooted in real world situations are used to motivate students to discover important concepts for themselves. Working in groups, students learn to analyze problems, identify and find needed information, share their research, and come to closure by formulating and evaluating solutions to the problem. Throughout, the instructor acts as guide and facilitator; in some classrooms, advanced undergraduates assist the instructor as peer tutors.

The appeal of problem-based learning is multifold. Carefully constructed, open-ended problems help develop critical thinking skills. Through such problems, students encounter concepts in contextually rich situations that impart meaning to those ideas and enhance their retention. In encouraging students to assess their own knowledge, to recognize deficiencies, and to remedy those shortcomings through their own investigations, problem-based learning provides them with an explicit model for lifelong learning. In addition, the group format teaches students the power of working cooperatively, fostering not only valuable communication and interpersonal skills, but also a sense of community in which diversity becomes a strength, enhancing the learning experience for all. Finally, the inquiry-driven nature of PBL makes it ideally suited for a research university environment, with the multiple resources for investigation and independent learning such a setting enjoys. Indeed, the whole philosophy of problem-based learning resonates with these comments from the Carnegie Foundation's recent Boyer report [2] on undergraduate education at research universities:

Despite the advantages for improving the undergraduate experience that problem-based learning offers, the adoption of PBL as a mode of instruction is a change not undertaken lightly. Giving up the safety and authority of the podium can be unsettling for faculty accustomed only to a traditional teacher-centered lecture format. Attempts to promote PBL, therefore, must be accompanied by broader efforts to change the campus culture to one more accepting of active, student-centered, and inquiry-based learning.

This has been accomplished at UD in large part through a grassroots faculty-driven reform effort, spearheaded by a group committed to helping their colleagues discover the same satisfaction and renewed excitement about teaching they had found upon adopting these new modes of instruction. Dissatisfied with their teaching experiences in traditional classrooms, this initial core of faculty adapted PBL for use in their introductory science courses. The positive student response prompted them to offer (with support from UD's Center for Teaching Effectiveness (CTE) and NSF) a series of PBL workshops to colleagues on and off campus. Realizing that many instructors were unfamiliar with (and intimidated by) active student-centered learning in general, these faculty developed an Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education (ITUE) [3], supported by NSF's Institution-Wide Reform program. ITUE Fellows attend workshops and programs that provide them with hands-on experiences with PBL and other active learning strategies, and the effective use of technology in their courses. The organizing faculty and Fellows from earlier years serve as mentors to help their colleagues negotiate what can be an unnerving paradigm shift in teaching. Colleagues who have actually dealt with the concerns that must be confronted in moving to student-centered learning can be powerfully effective mentors in encouraging other faculty to rethink how they teach. The increasing number of faculty (and graduate students) involved in the program provides continuing momentum for reform, fostering a community of instructors committed to offering our undergraduates the best education possible.     (top)

Program Objectives and Implementation

The objective of the problem-based learning project and its partner ITUE faculty training program - i.e., to promote the incorporation of active, inquiry-based instruction - has helped redefine the mission of the University of Delaware. As the flagship research institution in the state, the University has been strongly committed to the idea of research-based education. Indeed, in 1997 UD was one of only ten institutions nationwide to receive an NSF Recognition Award for the Integration of Research and Education (RAIRE) [4], for its leadership and vision in this area. Sixty percent of all faculty (90% in the sciences) participate in the Undergraduate Research Program, in which students serve as research apprentices; one goal is for every undergraduate at UD to engage in some type of research or internship before graduating. The University of Delaware was also singled out in the recent Boyer report for its emphasis on research-based learning. The promotion of problem-based learning, lauded in both of these awards, helps students experience the excitement of discovery in the classroom as well as in the lab.

An integral part of problem-based learning is the formation of a learning community: instruction is not simply from teacher to student, but involves multidirectional interactions, with each person becoming part of the discovery and learning process. An especially powerful feature employed in a number of PBL classrooms at UD is the use of peer tutors: advanced undergraduates who, after training, help guide student learning groups under faculty supervision. A peer tutor extends the presence of the instructor (enabling PBL to be carried out even in large classes) and, particularly in freshmen courses, serves as a role model for novice learners trying to adjust to the intellectual expectations of the University. Peer tutoring benefits tutors as well, providing a capstone experience in which they can view their discipline holistically, as well as a chance to sample life as a teacher in a highly supportive, mentoring environment. Problem-based learning affords an environment in which all members of the instructional process may grow.

The strategy in promoting active and problem-based learning at UD has been to target introductory-level courses, in order to develop critical habits of mind in students as soon as possible. We also hope that early exposure to these exciting teaching methods will stimulate student demand for more courses like them, helping to spread the reform effort throughout the curriculum. Thus far, over 100 lower-level courses either have been or are slated for transformation to utilize active and problem-based learning. The recent awarding of a Pew Charitable Trusts grant to the University to incorporate problem-based learning into large, general education courses in the social sciences and humanities will enhance this effort even more.

The atmosphere at the University of Delaware is, at present, ideal for educational reform. The past several years have seen an increased institutional emphasis on the undergraduate experience, which has led to an environment quite open to instructional innovation. The administration's strong support for the educational strategies espoused by the PBL and ITUE efforts has been made clear in a number of tangible ways: ITUE Fellows, for example, have been awarded matching support funds from their departments or colleges. The recently constructed Gore Hall is devoted solely to classroom use; it contains no large lecture halls - indeed, no room holds more than 80 people, and several classes were furnished explicitly for case-study or PBL use. Campus recruiting programs are billed as "Delaware Discovery Days," with a strong emphasis on the theme of discovery-based education. An administrative orientation session for new faculty is now conducted in part using a problem-based format.

Faculty as well are showing support for these efforts. More than 250 faculty have participated in workshops on problem-based learning and over 100 have been awarded ITUE fellowships. All faculty ranks have been represented, as well as almost every discipline. Although the PBL effort was based originally in the College of Arts and Sciences, its influence has rapidly spread throughout the campus: teams from both the mechanical and electrical engineering departments, for example, have attended the ITUE in preparation for totally transforming their undergraduate curricula.     (top)

Program Impact and Success

In its emphasis on faculty mentoring other faculty, the ITUE is fulfilling a real need on campus, as expressed by one of the first faculty Fellows:

In 1997 and 1998, the first two years of the Institute, over 100 faculty Fellows participated - twice the number originally anticipated. The success of the Institute has led the University administration to the decision to make ITUE an integral part of faculty development. The training and support offered by ITUE will be needed in light of several major initiatives being undertaken at Delaware. With funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts, a number of high-impact general education courses from the social sciences and humanities are undergoing reconstruction as problem-based learning courses, to expand PBL to curricula outside the sciences. Problem-based learning also lies at the heart of a sweeping curriculum reform being undertaken in the College of Business and Economics.

Clearly, PBL and, more broadly, active, student-centered, inquiry-driven methods of instruction have become part of the vernacular at the University of Delaware. An important question remains, however: What effect are these changes in pedagogy having on our students? While the benefits of active and cooperative learning have been documented elsewhere, some pertinent data [5] are also available from the UD PBL experience, including: detailed student evaluations for a variety of PBL courses; essays and interviews from a small group of PBL students selected randomly for long range tracking; and concept test results from students in the PBL physics and biology courses. A qualitative examination of these data suggests that students in PBL classes improve in their ability to work together, to find information for themselves and to tackle difficult problems, and value those improvements. They also perform at least as well as those from traditional classes in terms of core content knowledge, despite less formal coverage of material.

Attempts to quantify these changes will continue in future projects. As part of the documentation required by the RAIRE award, the University has begun a longitudinal study of students participating in undergraduate research and/or PBL; the study examines the cognitive and social skills that students gain through inquiry-based learning, as well as tracking retention rates and post-graduation occupations. Similar assessment and evaluation measures will accompany the PBL project funded (with a 1:1 match from UD) by the Pew Charitable Trusts. One quantitative measure of student acceptance of problem-based courses lies in registration and attendance data; the fact that PBL courses are well-populated, with attendance of over 90% for most courses, speaks strongly to this point.

In 1993, the term "problem-based learning" was virtually unknown on the campus of the University of Delaware. Five years later, it has become a byword, and the University has established an international reputation as the leader in the development of problem-based learning in undergraduate education. No other research university, to our knowledge, has come close to Delaware's efforts in this area. These efforts have been shared with the rest of the education community via a web site [6] and listserve [7] presence, as well as through over 50 regional, national, and international workshops and presentations, and over 20 articles published in a variety of journals. In addition, the Pew Charitable Trusts program is supporting the establishment at UD of a national clearinghouse of materials on teaching undergraduates with PBL, for the use of faculty and faculty developers at other institutions. In the recent Boyer commission report, the University of Delaware, cited for its adoption of PBL in introductory science courses, is the first of only five institutions held up as models in making research-based learning the standard in undergraduate education.

A report commissioned by NSF in 1997 cited the University of Delaware in recommending problem-based learning as ideally suited for instruction in the analytical sciences [8]. Eight highly competitive awards totaling in excess of three million dollars have been received on campus since 1994 for efforts related to the problem-based learning and faculty development projects [9].

What began as a search on the part of a few faculty for a better way to teach is changing the face of undergraduate education at the University of Delaware, and providing a viable model for other institutions to emulate. The initial proposal to use problem-based learning in a handful of courses has led to:

• a full-scale development program to train faculty in using PBL and other active learning strategies and technologies in their courses
• a peer tutoring program that involves upperclassmen in the teaching process
• a number of initiatives aimed at transforming individual courses and whole curricula into more active, student-centered and inquiry-driven formats
• national recognition as a resource of information and insight for others interested in change

Perhaps the most important change, though, has been in attitude - in the renewed interest expressed throughout the University in the importance of undergraduate teaching aimed at meeting the real needs of our students, in ways that are invigorating and effective for both students and faculty. In the long run, that's what matters.     (top)

References

1. Wingspread Conference. 1994. Quality Assurance in Undergraduate Education: What the Public Expects. ECS, Denver, CO.
2. Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University, for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 1998. Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America's Research Universities. http://notes.cc.sunysb.edu/Pres/boyer.nsf
3. The Web site for the Institute may be found at http://www.udel.edu/inst/
4. The Web site for the RAIRE project may be found at http://www.udel.edu/RAIRE/.
5. The Web site for the final report of the original NSF-funded PBL project containing much of these data may be found at http://www.udel.edu/chem/white/finalrpt.html.
6. The Web site for Problem-Based Learning at the University of Delaware may be found at http://www.udel.edu/pbl/.
7. The listserve e-mail address is ud-pbl-undergrad@udel.edu. Subscription nstructions may be found at http://www.udel.edu/pbl/ud-pbl-undergrad.html
8. National Science Foundation. 1997. Curricular Developments in the Analytical Sciences. Arlington, VA.
9. See Appendix A.

Appendix A: Chronology of Funded Projects Related to Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

Appendix B: Selected Presentations and Publications

Selected Presentations to National Organizations

1. White, H.B.III, "Problem-Based Learning in Introductory Science across Disciplines (including Biochemistry)," American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Meeting, May 1994, Washington, DC.
2. Groh, S.E., "Using Problem-Based Learning in General Chemistry", American Chemical Society National Meeting, August 1994, Washington, DC.
3. Williams, B.A. "Problem-Based Learning in Honors Physics", 18^th Annual Meeting of the National Society of Black Physicists", April 1995, Atlanta, GA.
4. Duch, B.J., "Problem-Based Learning: Bringing the Real World into the Physics Classroom", American Association of Physics Teachers meeting, August 1995, Spokane, WA.
5. Duch, B.J. and White. H.B.III, "The Problems in Problem-Based Learning", 20^th Annual Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network Conference, October 1995, North Falmouth, MA.
6. Duch, B.J., Lieux, E.M., and Knous, J.L., "Discovering Problem-Based Learning as a Strategy in Dietetic Education", annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association, October 1996, San Antonio, TX.
7. Duch, B.J., "Problem-Based Learning in Undergraduate Science", NSF-sponsored Analytical Sciences Workshop, Pittsburgh Conference, March 1997, Atlanta, GA.
8. Allen, D.E., Duch, B.J., and White, H.B.III,"Problem-Based Learning: Experience It Yourself", FIPSE Project Directors’ Meeting, November 1997, Crystal City, VA.
9. Allen, D.E., "Use of Near-Peer Tutors in Undergraduate Problem-Based Science Courses", AAAS national meeting, February 17, 1998, Philadelphia, PA.

Selected Publications:

1. Williams, B.A. and Duch, B.J., "Problem-Based Group Learning in General Physics", Bulletin of the American Physics Society, 40, 971-5, 1995.
2. Allen, D.E., Duch, B.J., and Groh, S.E., "The Power of Problem-Based Learning in Teaching Introductory Science Courses", in New Directions in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education #68, ed: Wilkerson, L. and Gijselaers, pp. 43-52, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996.
3. Duch, B.J., "Problem-Based Learning in Physics: the Power of Students Teaching Students", J. College Sci. Teaching, 25 (5), 326-329, 1996.
4. White, H.B.III, "Addressing Content in Problem-Based Courses: The Learning Issue Matrix", Biochemical Education 24, 41-45, 1996.
5. Groh, S.E., Williams, B.A., Allen, D.E., Duch, B.J., Mierson, S., and White, H.B.III, "Institutional Change in Science Education: A Case Study", in Student-Active Science: Models of Innovation in College Science Teaching, ed: D’Avanzo, C. and McNeal, A.P., pp 83-91, Philadelphia: Saunders, 1997.
6. Allen, D.E., "Bringing Problem-Based Learning into the Introductory Biology Classroom", in Student-Active Science: Models of Innovation in College Science Teaching, ed: D’Avanzo, C. and McNeal, A.P., pp 259-275, Philadelphia: Saunders, 1997.
7. Williams, B.A. and Duch, B.J., "Cooperative Problem-Based Learning in an Undergraduate Physics Classroom", in Student-Active Science: Models of Innovation in College Science Teaching, ed: D’Avanzo, C. and McNeal, A.P., pp 453-470, Philadelphia: Saunders, 1997.
8. Allen, D.E. and Duch, B.J. Thinking Towards Solutions: Problem-Based Learning Activities in General Biology. Philadelphia: Saunders College Publishing, 1998.

Appendix C: Impact of the Problem-Based Learning Effort at the University of Delaware

Appendix D: ITUE Fellows and Courses, 1997-98

Nomination prepared by:  Sue Groh (chair), Deb Allen, John Cavanaugh, Barb Duch, George Watson, and Hal White.

Comments, suggestions, or requests to ud-itue@udel.edu. "http://www.udel.edu/inst/hesburgh/nomination.html" Last updated February 9, 1999. Copyright Univ. of Delaware, 1999.