An Appropriate Technique of Facilitation Using Students' Participation Level Measurement in the PBL Environment

摘要

Students' participation in the PBL group discussions has always been associated with the role of facilitators, who are responsible 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 is difficult to assess the effectiveness of particular techniques or approaches that are used for facilitation. Therefore, the objectives 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 for the study comprised the first-year polytechnic electrical engineering students, who were undergoing ten-week PBL according to the fourteen-step procedures. These students participated in small-group (four to five members) discussions to solve five electrical engineering problems in a two-week block period. The students' participation was observed and videotaped, as well as getting students to use a fixed reflective journal to record their thoughts after attending all the tutorial sessions. 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). These classifications can be grouped into several combinations in order to explain the students' levels of participation in small-group PBL discussions. Premised on the findings, several suggestions are proposed to develop a facilitation technique: to create an environment conducive to discussion sessions and encourage active student participation.