Development of PBL Students as Self-Directed Learners

This research paper describes the study of the impact of a project-based learning (PBL) curriculum on the learners’ development of self-directed learning abilities. The motivation for this study is that self-directed learning (SDL) ability is positioned as one of the essential outcomes of engineering education. This can be seen in the following quote from the International Engineering Alliance “The fundamental purpose of engineering education is to build a knowledge base and attributes to enable the graduate to continue learning and to proceed to formative development that will develop the competencies required for independent practice.” There are many terms that are used to describe the processes that are desired in and used by individuals when they acquire new knowledge. Metacognition, lifelong learning, selfregulated learning, and self-directed learning are among those terms most commonly used. The commonalities and differences of these concepts are presented in the paper in order to then describe the development of the self-directed learning abilities in undergraduate students. This research is grounded in the prior works of others who have studied the changes of engineering students’ SDL abilities across the four to five years of an undergraduate education. Compelling evidence is presented showing that students in a traditional, lecture-based, engineering education experience no significant growth as self-directed learners. Prior studies by multiple researchers indicate students experiencing PBL curricula have experienced significant growth. These studies all used the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS), a commercially available tool that has been administered to 120,000 adults and as been used in over 90 PhD studies. The researchers developed a qualitative study in an attempt to characterize how the PBL graduates experienced self-directed learning. 27 PBL graduates were interviewed. A phenomenographic methodology was used to determine how the graduates experience SDL in their engineering practice. The result of the qualitative study is a set of six different “ways of experiencing”. In a phenomenography, the “ways of experiencing” are the outcome space. By studying and interpreting the different ways of experiencing, academic decision makers who are considering the implementation of PBL can contemplate how these results can impact their design decisions. Introduction Engineering outcomes have been prevalent for the past two decades. Upon graduation from university, new engineers enter the field of practice expected to perform well across technical, design, and professional skill domains. While some of the knowledge necessary to succeed in these domains may have been acquired in their education, much of what they need will be acquired, as it is needed, in their new capacity. Further, the half-life of technical knowledge in the profession is often stated to be between 2-7 years, meaning new learning will be a continual event throughout a 30-40 year career. The recruiter of new engineering students for a PBL engineering curriculum often engages potential students with this commentary: “I’d like you to visualize your first day of work after graduation. Let me tell you two things that are not going to happen on that day... two things your new boss isn’t going to say. First, she won’t say “Greetings John, welcome to ABC Engineering, we are glad you are here. I would like to introduce you to Dr. Jill. We have hired her to be your professor. When you need to learn something new, Dr. Jill will be here to teach it to you.” The second thing she is not going to say is “Here are some textbooks. Each week, your job is to do the problems at the end of each chapter. If you get them correct, we will issue you a paycheck. At the end of each month, we will give you some written exams. Your performance on the written exams will determine the amount of your bonus.” This story resonates with the students. To this point in their engineering education, nearly all of their learning has been one-directional from an instructor and nearly all of their performance has been through the completion of closed-ended chapter problems and written exams. They know this is what they neither expect nor want as the duties of their profession. Therefore, they struggle with this misalignment of activities during college, with these expectations after college. Lifelong learning, self-directed learning, self-regulated learning, and being metacognitive are all terms used, often interchangeably, to address the outcome expected of new graduates. The definitions, similarities, and differences are addressed below. However, a summary is that new engineering graduates are expected to be able to acquire new knowledge efficiently and effectively and be able to use it to solve complex, ill-defined problems quite different than those at the end of a chapter in a textbook.