Ming Yi (Marian) Gao

The aim of this research

The underlying aim of this research is to improve the effective implementation of project-based learning approach, with specific reference to the teaching and learning in the engineering design project context. 

In the engineering education field, and the fields of other disciplines as well, the issue of PBL effectiveness is far from being settled: Different philosophical and learning theory basis, conflicting findings and flawed research methodology in quite many studies have made the PBL effectiveness research quite a controversial issue, which, in turn, caused the confusion in the PBL implementation. 

By examining the current situation of the effectiveness of PBL in higher education as well as in engineering education, two aspects of problems can be generalized:

• “Know” aspect: PBL is perceived as a better approach than traditional teaching approach by quite many people today, especially practitioners. but there is no agreement on its effectiveness so far.
  
• “Do” aspect: PBL is in various types in application. There is no agreement on how to apply PBL better, and further, best. 

These two aspects are closely related. To study the effectiveness of PBL, the above two aspects of problems need to be settled first. That is, the PBL practitioners not only need to know “What” the effectiveness of PBL is, but also “Why” it is and “How” to implement PBL more effectively.

Therefore, this research focused on finding out relatively effective PBL teaching procedures and providing measurable metrics for PBL practitioner to know the likely effectiveness of their PBL implementation for further improvement. 

Considering the fact that in engineering, design projects are widely regarded as the core activity which have the potential to meet the requirements of today’s engineering graduates (Dym,2005; QAA, 2006), and meanwhile, design projects represent an activity that easily lends itself to the problem oriented approach because of their applied nature (Royal Academy of Engineering, 2005), in this research, we will take design projects as an vehicle to study the issues of PBL in engineering educationConsidering the fact that in engineering, design projects are widely regarded as the core activity which have the potential to meet the requirements of today’s engineering graduates (Dym,2005; QAA, 2006), and meanwhile, design projects represent an activity that easily lends itself to the problem oriented approach because of their applied nature (Royal Academy of Engineering, 2005), in this research, we will take design projects as an vehicle to study the issues of PBL in engineering education

Hence, in this research, with design projects as the vehicles of PBL. our research aims to answer the following questions:

1. How to differentiate the different ways of PBL implementation in the engineering design project context?
2. To what extent the PBL implementation can be relatively more effective in the engineering design project context?
3. What are measurable metrics for the PBL effectiveness?

Methodology in this research

It should be admitted that there are numerous, even unlimited, variables within the PBL process that can affect the effectiveness of PBL, and the interrelation between them is extremely complex. What we tried to do in this research was to pick out those variables which are most closely relevant to the effectiveness of PBL and meanwhile are most possibly to be controlled by the PBL teachers, based on learning theories or qualitative studies such as interviews or case studies. Then, by comparing the relation between these variables with the learning outcomes of PBL, we could get some qualitative results which indicate some relatively optimal PBL teaching procedures or some procedures leading to relatively poor PBL learning outcomes. 

The progress of this research 

1. The identification of self-directed learning (SDL) as the characterization parameter of PBL which most represents the characteristics of PBL and is the most relevant variable to the effectiveness of PBL.
   
2. A PBL effectiveness model was built based on the characterization parameter of PBL –SDL.
   
3. A survey on the effectiveness of design project modules in 6 UK universities was conducted to test the feasibility of the PBL effectiveness model. Major findings are:
   • The relation between students’ SDL time and their self-assessed improvement found in this study proved the feasibility of PBL effectiveness model, which is constructed with the abstracted SDL as the characterization parameter of PBL. 
   •  Relatively optimal type(s) of PBL can be identified by the amount of abstract SDL time involved in the PBL. 
   • The optimal type(s) of PBL is not fixed. It changes with the changing of different academic years, or with the changing of different learning categories; 
   • The relatively ineffective types of PBL can also be identified which was labelled as “the Bottleneck SDL time of PBL”. 
   •  Students’ attitude towards the PBL modules corresponds with the improvement they perceive they have achieved, but does not always correspond with the SDL time they spend in PBL. 
     
4.  Interviews were conducted with 10 academics in charge of the undergraduate engineering design module teaching . Great varieties were found in these teachers’ implementations of design project teaching. Reasons for the varieties were analyzed and common themes beneath these varieties were also discussed.

On-going research activities

1. Participant observation of SDL teamwork in design project modules. 
   
2. Interviews with the engineering graduates on the long-term effects of design projects at university.