Developmental journeys moving problem-based case learning to real-time

This document uses the case studies of faculty who have worked with the Center for Information Technology Education’s (CITE) Corporate Scholars Solutions Project (CSS) to identify common themes and issues important to them as revealed from their experiences. Their efforts to explore possibilities for preparing the future workforce with not only the content knowledge needed for Information Technology degrees, but perhaps, more important, the skills needed to find solutions to real-time business problems, confirm that these solutions will require innovation and adaptive expertise as well as technical knowledge about IT systems.

CSS utilizes Problem based cased (PBC) pedagogy as based on learning principles from Problem Based Learning (PBL, Barrows, 1985), Case Based Reasoning (CBR, Kolodner, 1997) and the literature on how people learn (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 1999). These learning principles have been shown to be more effective than more traditional pedagogy for producing important student outcomes (Barrows & Bennett, 1982; Vernon & Blake, 1993; Kolodner, Gray & Fasse, 2003; Albanese & Mitchell, 1993).

Our teachers are faculty members at 2- and 4-year colleges. Most faculty are not trained in “pedagogy” but are experts in their fields, in our case, information technology. Many have had experience in business and industry settings and bring a wealth of knowledge about workforce issues and needs. They have been engineers, systems analysts, software developers, information security consultants, and GIS experts to name a few. They come to teaching as a choice and their views about teaching usually include a strong belief in the importance of application of learning in real-world settings.

Our results indicate that all our faculty had already used project based approaches in their classes. Most had brought in problems that they had encountered in their work or hypothetical problems that had been available to them. None had experienced the complexity of a real-time business problem, yet they were, for the most part volunteers to take on this approach. The consistency of the positive experiences with CSS speaks to the faculty’s willingness to trust the process.

On the other hand, the few faculty reporting somewhat negative experiences is a more complicated story. Results revealed an important disconnect with their relationship with the business partner. The conditions under which these faculty were recruited to participate at their institution also may have played a role in a less than optimum experience for them.

Three major themes emerge from the overall analysis. First, the business partner relationship and its role are central to understanding faculty experience. Second, the critical role of framing the problem and allowing it to anchor the learning seems to be the foundation for success or failure with the approach. A third major issue coming out of this analysis is the developmental journey that faculty encountered as they moved from problem-based approaches to problems in real-time. Issues central to the journey included understanding the conceptual foundation for the pedagogy; managing the learning environment or “managing the engagement”; and trusting the process. To the credit of all that attempted this approach, faculty were willing to test their own understandings of the pedagogy involved and share their personal journeys.

What they learned and how they are positioned to continue learning is important to framing a professional development model. In CSS projects asking - How do we prepare our students to innovate? How do we encourage developing expertise to move from routine efficiency to adaptive thinking? – became central. These same two questions are central to professional development models. How do we foster teacher learning, innovation in teaching, and adaptive expertise in teaching? This document closes with an examination of several critical elements that should be included in professional development efforts.