The Needs Of The Industry Today
What qualities do Mr. Bill Gates, the Chairman of Microsoft, Mr. Sim Wong Hoo, the Chairman of Creative Technology and other top executives of the high technology industry have in common?
Yes, they all have good technical knowledge acquired during their formal education. But is the acquisition of technical knowledge the only factor for bringing their respective companies to such great heights? Certainly not. They have many other qualities.
While it is important to be technically competent, one has to bear in mind that engineers and managers today are not sought solely for this quality. In addition, the industry seeks people who are able to work as a team, who are able to display confidence when working with their clients, who are able to produce high quality work, who are able to present clearly, who are creative and critical and last but not the least, who are able to continuously keep themselves abreast of the latest technology so that the company will always be on par if not ahead of competitors. The PBL process offers this training ground for such skills to be developed.
What Is Problem Based Learning (PBL)?
Problem-based learning (PBL) is a learning methodology where students learn new knowledge through solving a problem. In traditional teaching, teachers give you all the information and you apply what they teach to solve a given problem. Learning in the traditional way can be a very lonely and unexciting task. At times, you may not see why you are learning something because you do not see how it is applied in real-life problems.
In PBL, your learning perspective changes. Besides having the opportunities to learn, work and solve problems in a team under the guidance of a facilitator (lecturer), you also become more motivated and begin to better appreciate the subjects you are learning because you apply the knowledge learned to a real-life problem almost immediately. Learning becomes meaningful and exciting.
Through PBL, you also learnt to become more resourceful and independent. Being resourceful and independent as well as being a good team player are important attributes that present employees are looking for in their prospective employees. It is not just enough to be good at subjects and do well in examinations. In a real place of work, there are no examination problems but real problems to solve!
Why Are We Adopting the PBL approach?
Studies have also shown that students who are exposed to a Problem Based Learning approach, exhibit favorable qualities such as good teamwork, excellent leadership skills, good time management, good sense of responsibility and high quality of work performance. The traditional approach to teaching does not achieve such educational outcomes.
Below are testimonies by an industrial partner of ours on 4 of our students, who have gone through two years of PBL training during the diploma studies.
NIE_TP collaboration on 3Rs.pdf
Myth #1: In PBL students are left to “survive the course” all by themselves
Fact #1: No. Although students are responsible for identifying the learning issues and for finding out how to solve the problem posed to them, however, facilitators will facilitate and guide you in your learning process and provide necessary resources. Your facilitator will carefully monitor the learning process to ensure that the subject learning outcomes are met. However, the students must realize that they have to adopt a positive attitude on the onset of learning and be prepared to learn and participate actively during this process.
Myth #2: Students do not perform well in PBL subjects as compared to those that are run ‘traditionally’
The past Semestral results show that the overall performance of the students is not determined by which methodology the subject adopts. How a student performs in PBL subjects depends largely on his learning attitude, active involvement in the problem-solving process and the team dynamics. In fact, we have found that students in PBL were more motivated to learn when their team is resourceful, cooperative, take seriousness in their work. More importantly, all members share a common goal of wanting to do well and putting in their best to complete the project on time.
Students Feedback About The Problem-Based Learning Curriculum
“I graduated in year 2001 with Diploma in Computer Engineering. I remember that CEN is the first course to use PBL. Today, I am still using the PBL approach in my daily working and personal life.
I’m currently working in a HDD manufacturing company. This systematic approach not only helps to solve problems that have been lying around for years, it also enables me to discover new ideas and methodologies to improve work process efficiency and quality. Most importantly, I’m able to learn new skills and knowledge on my own that were never taught in school before.
Thank you CEN. Thank you TP.”
Wong Wei Chuan
CEN Graduate 2001
“I felt that the PBL training that I had gone through has made the greatest difference in what I am today. I felt that other than the knowledge from the books, life skills is equally important. For example, I learnt to become a more resourceful person through the PBL way of learning.
Learning how to source for information is more important than having information provided for us all the time. And I really appreciate this style (PBL) of learning where my lecturer played the role as a facilitator to guide us in our path of learning, rather than being spoon-fed (as in my secondary school years).
The skills and knowledge that I’ve learnt in PBL is very relevant to the real-world. In the first place, I am given a real-life problem at the beginning of the semester. In order to solve this problem, I have to go through the various processes in PBL, which almost mirror how one is going to go through in a real-world setting when given a task by your boss. Therefore, PBL truly prepares me well for my future career”
Wee ZiHuan
CEN Graduate 2004
Lee Kuan Yew Award Winner
