Problem Based Solution - A User's Experience

When I was a teenager, I studied Architectural Technology at the SingaporePolytechnic. The course used an early system Problem Based Learning Technic in our class. Very simple technics of doing research for information over construction material, issues and know how were given for student to handle. We were given simple problems like to suggest construction details to a given building proposal. This method of learning was still in infancy. While the course was laborious because there wasn’t the concept of the public using the internet at that time. Even if we had, there was not enough documentation to look for anything.

Problem Based Learning method was a new thing so much so it became a problem to people who taught it. We found our lectures resorting to TEMPLATE answers when they couldn’t handle 30 students with 30 different construction solutions.

I read Architecture at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales where the School of Architecture was also using Problem Based Learning approach. There in the school, students were pushed to determine the issues of architectural design without much opinion from tutors.

There were at times tutors who gave the answers which became a personal solution instead of a Problem Based Solution. Students were left 80% in discontented mental void as they were so used to receiving answers from an official source. It could be that I was Singaporean and was too used to given answers from text book.

In my working life, the use of Problem Based Learning approach drew a nought with my employers who were 2 generations my senior. In fact, it was a method that nobody in the industry knew they wanted.

It suggested that employers were not in control and that the method was a waste of time trying to reinvent the wheel. I managed to use Problem Based Learning approach only once on a multiple house project where the Architect that I worked for, developer and builders came to a standstill. My employer the Architect gave up being involved on site and nothing would move. It was so bad that nobody wanted to do anything. This gave me the licence to establish the PBL approach. All it took was to supplement the builder's 2 site engineers who had a communication problem with local tradesmen who spoke 3 forms of Chinese language. The site engineers were from Myanmar and of opposing tribes. They sprung into their own private war in frustration of not being effective. It was their frustration that they didn’t focus on the written documentation and could not establish works done on paper thereby not being able to claim monies from the developer for works done. I introduced an Architectural year out intern who was Chinese conversant and bridged the problem. The project then begun to  move.

Another successful instance for the use of PBL was my tutoring at the Ngee Ann Polytechnic where i was teaching Horticulture student how to draw technical drawings. The students were by and large very restless because they were caught between being allotted a coarse that was not a traditional subject and an IT denial which was an oxymoron to the in heavy demand in all students at that time. I was informed that student would become disrespectful over the discomfort. The course work was something that was meant for structural engineers to learn. There was a large disconnect in the subject as the main course dealt with plants and here I was teaching something to do with concrete! There was also a high absenteeism among the classmates and they would only appear when there was a test. The practical exercise weekly I was warned would not be attended. It was because my subject was seen as somewhat extra-curricular so there wasn’t much focus on how I ran my class. What I devised for my class:

1. 100% ACCESS TO COMPUTERS LAB DURING LECTURES AND EXCERCISE (owning laptops was still a new thing)

2. THE LECTURE, TUTORIAL, EXERCISE & TEST WERE ALL ON THE SAME DAY

3. LESSONS WERE INTERWEAVED WITH POPULAR LIFESTYLE ISSUES LIKE BEING IN A CAFE, USAGE OF EMAIL, FINDING INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET, RELATIONSHIP WITH TV SIT COMS.

4. LIFESKILLS WERE INVISIBLY ADDED TO THEIR COURSE WORK SO THAT IT CAN ORIENTATE THEIR ADULT LIVES.

5. TEAM WORK WHERE YOU CANT CHOOSE YOUR TEAM MATES AND THEY ARE DIFFERENT PEOPLE IN DIFFERENT EXCERCISES.

6. THE SUBJECT INSTEAD OF AN ENGINEERING ONE BECAME A POSSIBLE EXTENSION FOR STUDENTS TO VENTURE INTO LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AS A FUTURE DEGREE. THIS JUSTIFIED LEARNING HOW TO DRAW.

The module ended and I was ask not to teach anymore as the assessment of my course was a funny one with 98% attendance, and overall grade of 70% and a grand complain by the students and computer labs not to have me anymore because they were uncomfortable with my arrangements.

I am currently in Singapore's first fully PBL polytechnic as an associate lecturer again this time for User Experience Students. To my astonishment, their courses were formatted almost like a replica of what I did for the class in Ngee Ann Polytechnic. This was 14 years later and each student used a computer note book. There were no lecture rooms but classroom that formatted students in groups.

I am now venturing into an environment where the employer understands PBL.