A multi-million dollar centre out to revolutionise tertiary teaching methods has offered funding for two university departments to explore its ideas.
The Hong Kong Centre for Problem-Based Learning, launched last August, wants to see teaching in higher education move towards students actively solving tasks and questions. In problem-based learning (PBL), teachers create practical problems and discuss solutions with students who are split into small groups, instead of focusing on lectures.
'It turns the traditional teaching method completely on its head,' said centre director Professor David Johnston. 'Limited research has been done on its effectiveness but there is consistent evidence showing that under it, students are far more motivated to learn, and what is learned is remembered for a long period of time,' he said. Professor Johnston helped implement PBL at the Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore before coming to the Hong Kong last year.
His centre, housed on the University of Hong Kong (HKU) campus, was launched with $6 million from the University Grants Committee, and will next month sponsor staff from two local university programmes, planning to implement PBL, on one of its training courses. The centre will announce the chosen departments shortly.
In recent months, Professor Johnston has given talks on PBL at universities, and offers monthly lunchtime seminars for those wishing to find out more.
PBL was first introduced in the medical faculty at Canada's McMaster University, in the late 1960s. It has since been adopted by most medical schools in Canada and by Harvard University, among others. The medical faculty at HKU adopted a hybrid model in 1997, as advocated by family medicine professor Tony Dixon, who taught at McMaster University when PBL was launched there.