Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | A | Academic Exchange Quarterly

MPBL: equipping the African university lecturer.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

Modified Problem-Based Learning (mPBL) can be useful to the African university because it enables the lecturer to transmit to the African learner critical skills needed to work with others in groups, organizations and communities to solve the problems they will face beyond the classroom. Thus, while mPBL has the same goals as PBL it differs from this pure form by incorporating critical elements such as collaborative team-based learning, Triple-Jump Competency learning and empowerment principles and practices.

Introduction

In many ways, the 21st Century African university is facing some of the same challenges universities in the United States and in other parts of the world are facing. In the U.S., for example, universities are facing a paradigm shift in higher education. That is, the classroom lecturer is moving away from traditional methods of teaching to methods which are more student and learning-centered. This includes methods which seek to connect classroom learning with real world problems such as the PBL model. In the non-traditional classroom, PBL incorporates the components of cooperative and service-based learning. Since the 21st Century African learner is steeped in a culture which is fraught with problems (i.e., hunger, violence, genocide, sickness and homelessness) on the one hand and ascribes to the principle of working together for a common future on the other hand, the 21st Century African lecturer needs to be equipped with the resources that can enable him or her to develop the African learner with (1) critical and independent thinking skills and (2) the ability to apply content knowledge while working in collaboration for the solution of complex problems.

The PBL Model is recognized by lecturers in the United States and throughout the world as an instructional strategy that challenges students to develop critical thinking and problem-solving abilities (Savin-Baden, 2000). It is especially suitable for lecturers in Africa because research shows that many African lecturers are now finding that the traditional lecture format is not always suitable for preparing students for life beyond the classroom (Quinn & Voster, 2004). Not unlike many lecturers in the United States the African lecturer is also aware that life situations beyond the classroom seldom parallel those structured problems provided in the classroom. So the learner's ability to solve neatly packaged traditional school-based problems does little, if anything, to develop the relevant, critical thinking skills he or she will need to interact with life beyond the classroom (Jones, 1996; Brockbank & McGill, 1998).

PBL is also suitable to the African learning context because it empowers students to work together to solve problems in their community. During a 1996-97 Fulbright tour, the writer got the opportunity to see the dedication of African communities to the principle of working together (i.e., unbunto or tiriasano). That is, one got to see this principle in action as the people from all types of communities and backgrounds were observed working together to solve community and national problems. This seemed to me a way of life for them. Working together is a life-long principle that is modeled from the top down to the grassroots and vice versa. It was no more unusual to see, then, President Nelson Mandela become involved in straat (street) children's homes or community development projects in the townships than to see him at social functions for prime ministers and ambassadors. This sense of community- service and involvement was also seen at the universities I visited. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to present the "new" lecturer with a modified version of Problem-Based Learning.

Modified Problem-Based Learning...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!