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This speculative paper constitutes some early thoughts about the appropriateness, and feasibility, of introducing a problem-based learning approach to a Graduate Diploma in Women's Studies. It will provide an overview of Women's' Studies at The University of New England, and an outline of some of the distinguishing features of problem-based learning, and its most common applications. Finally, after suggesting some of the areas in which Women's Studies and problem-based learning are most compatible, consideration will be given to the added exigencies of teaching and learning by distance education.
The University of New England's Graduate Diploma in Women's Studies is offered by external/distance mode, and has tended to attract mature-aged students, with previous, and/or on going workplace experience. The program provides an introduction to feminist theory and research methodology, and enables students to carry out their own research, in the form of a 15,000 word dissertation, and to do this within a transdisciplinary framework. In addition to this dissertation, and a full-year core module on theory and methodology, students complete two electives, chosen from a range of undergraduate, 300-level, courses. There are twenty-or-so of these electives, and they are offered through a range of disciplines, which draw upon all four faculties at UNE--Arts; Education, Health and Professional Studies; Sciences; and Economics, Business and Law. However, the most multidisciplinary of these electives is a course entitled Women and Work: Gender in the Paid and Unpaid Workforce, and, as interdisciplinarity is one of the distinguishing features to problem-based learning, it is a course which most readily lends itself to my project.
Problem-based learning is a student-centred, and interdisciplinary, approach to teaching and learning which provides the student, or group of students, with a scenario, or problem, which acts as a trigger, promoting a need for evaluation, inquiry, and, possibly, a solution. In this respect, it is a pedagogical approach which simulates some of the types of "real life" situations to which the subject being studied will eventually be applied, and to which its knowledges, and skills, can bee seen to be immediately relevant. The problem itself is presented to the students before the provision of lecture notes, or the recommendation of particular reading materials. It is only after the students have engaged with the problem, identified the knowledges and skills required to deal with the problem, and considered how to go about obtaining such knowledges and skills, that they move into working with such information. This process is overseen by a "facilitator," who may assist by providing information on request , but does not direct the students' lines of inquiry. This is contrary to more teacher-centred, discipline-based courses, in which such information, and skills, might be described as the course content, and be presented in advance of the students' attempts to answer any such problems. In all probability, the problems would have been set as means of assessing, or testing, the students' grasp of the designated course content.
A search through the literature about problem-based learning quickly reveals that it is an approach to teaching and learning that largely has been confined to professional, and vocational education, in which the application a set of practical skills is taught, and finally assessed. Such courses include Medicine, Nursing, Architecture, and some aspects of Management, and Law. In an attempt to explain why problem-based learning is well suited to such courses, and why it is often misrepresented as "an innovation in modern institutions," David Boud has observed that:
"the older conceptions of knowledge and learning on which it is based have been subordinated to the academic subject disciplines in which most teachers have been educated. In the world of professional practice, however, problems are not organised in this fashion and learners, on entering this world, are faced with a sharp contrast between their subject centred education and their problem-oriented practical experience" (Boud 1985, p.13).In my intention to apply problem-based learning to Women's Studies, the first thing I must do is question the existence of any such clear-cut distinction between "practical" or "professional" courses of study, and those implicitly "impractical" and "amateur" courses of study, which are seen to constitute the humanities. Expressed in these terms, such a distinction is clearly inappropriate, as many of us "earn our living" by teaching, or as a result of studying, the humanities. Indeed, it is to be hoped that some of us may even practice humanity! Furthermore, the usefulness, let alone possibility, of retaining a distinction between theory and practice, is seriously questioned even by those otherwise unlikely to identify themselves as either feminist, or postmodernist, in their approach to transmission, or application of knowledge. More specifically, it is to be hoped that one of the learning outcomes of any of the Women's Studies courses referred to in this paper will include the individual student's ability to apply (or replicate) the process of their learning in the decision-making, and action-taking, processes of their lives. It is with this desired outcome in mind, that I hope to be able to write stimulating, inquiry-provoking, interdisciplinary, "problems" that will lead students acquire appropriate, and necessary, understandings, on a "need-to-know" basis.
Amongst his extensive writings on problem-based learning, David Boud has identified a number of its characteristics (Boud 1985, p.15) I shall detail some of these here, and indicate some of the ways in which they suggest a compatibility with many of the preferred methodologies, and outcomes of the Women's Studies courses under consideration.
"1. An acknowledgment of the base of experience of learners."Recognition of prior learning is especially appropriate to many of the students in the Graduate Diploma of Women's Studies at UNE. They are postgraduates, and mostly, as mature-aged students, have had experience of working life, either in the paid or unpaid workforce. Whilst the majority of students in the Women and Work unit may not be classified as mature-aged, RPL is important, because, as Boud goes on to observe, "[a]t any level students make an important contribution to learning by drawing upon their own experience...."
"2. An emphasis on students taking responsibility for their own learning. Students are expected to take an active part in planning, organising and evaluating their own learning...."As the students under consideration are all studying by external mode, this element of personal responsibility is certainly important. The scenarios employed as triggers in problem-based learning do require students to identify a "specified range of relevant skills, and kinds of information. In addition to this, however, they will be placing an emphasis upon, and further pursuing, areas of special. This is also particularly appropriate in an interdisciplinary course in which the students themselves hail from various discipline-specific backgrounds.
"3. They are multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary. If problems are the focus of learning then courses cannot fit into the well-defined categories of existing subject divisions. They necessarily cross existing boundaries between disciplines. Staff are thus drawn into areas which fall outside their recognised academic expertise."Building upon previous statements about the interdisciplinarity of the courses, it is appropriate to mention that much of the feminist theory and methodology that supports Women's Studies is very much concerned with breaking down clear-cut, and inflexible distinctions between disciplines, and challenging many of their epistemological bases.
"4. Theory and practice are inextricably intertwined. There is no preestablished division between concepts and applications. Theory is drawn naturally into knowledge through the demands of problem-solutions. (Argyris and Schon 1974, Argyris 1982)."As has already been noted, the largely inseparable nature of the operations of theory and practice is widely acknowledged in the humanities.
"5. There is a focus on the processes of knowledge acquisition rather than the products of such processes. Students are confronted with the need to know how to approach a problem and acquire new knowledge, (Woods 1983) and how to process their experiences through various forms of reflection (see Boud, Keogh and Walker 1985, Schon 1983)."In addition to the desire to provide students with problem-solving skills, and an understanding of the ways in which knowledges are acquired, one of the objectives of Women's Studies is to encourage, and facilitate, the student's' questioning of existing systems of knowledge, and recognition of the extent to which such knowledges are constructed. In addition, it is very much involved in the business of constructing new ways of knowing, and of having those ways accepted. within the academy.
At this stage it would seem appropriate to provide an example of one of the kinds of problems, or scenarios, that could be used to trigger interest, and inquiry, in a problem-based approach to teaching Women's Studies. During an intensive workshop series on PBL, conducted by Associate Professor Penny Little, of Problarc, at the University of Newcastle, I was required to design such a trigger. As was to be expected, the workshops largely concentrated upon the needs of various nursing, or medical, curricula., and, using the models provided, I ventured to produce the following, rather simple introductory scenario.
"Two of your friends have just been to see a screening of Fred Schepsi's film, Evil Angels, after which you join them for a coffee. In their after-film discussion, Anne says that she had followed the documentaries, and press coverage at the time, and claims that the film distorted the real story, and only gave sentimentalised image of Lindy Chamberlain. Nathan disagrees, and argues that the film simply wanted to show that Lindy couldn't have killed her own child, and was not the cool, unnatural mother she had appeared to be in the press. Anne says that Lindy's hormones were probably out of wack, and that throughout history there are plenty of instances of women being willing to kill their own children. After mentioning Medea, Lady Macbeth, and a recent trial in the USA, Anne and Nathan turn to you for comment."Initially, this scenario would be used to encourage the students to evaluate, and respond to, the comments made in the above exchange. In this process they register their existing knowledge, and point of view. In addition, they would be invited to identify the assumptions at work in their own comments, and in those made by Anne and Nathan, and the various issues about the representation of women that are raised in the discussion.
After this engagement, the students are instructed that they will meet with Anne, Nathan again in x number of days to continue the discussion, and are asked what steps they will take to reach an informed opinion. Once the appropriate kinds, and sources of information are identified, each member of the group becomes responsible for researching an area, and sharing that information with the group at the next session.
Some of the anticipated KNOWLEDGE outcomes of this "problem" would be for students to become aware of, and gain a greater understanding in relation to:
Each unit of the course is presented separately in the handbook, and takes the form of a brief outline of the focus, a choice of essay, and seminar topics, and related bibliographical details. Assessment regulations are such that students at 200-level write on two separate units of the course, and students at 300-level must write on three separate units. Whilst all students are asked to come to the residential school prepared to discuss all seminar topics, their actual assessment is based on a quality engagement with only two, or thee, of the eight units of the course. It is hoped that, in proposing to apply a modified version of problem-based learning to this course, a wider, and more interdisciplinary engagement with the breadth of material treated in the whole course will be achieved.
In the light of these sorts of observations, the potential of problem-based learning in distance education would seem limited. However, as evidenced by Ostwald's own external courses in the Bachelor of Construction Management, taught through The University of Newcastle, NSW, such limitations can be overcome--largely by the use of written package materials in which the text "somehow emulate[s]...a form of conversational mode which imitates a tutorial environment" (Ostwald p.8).This may seem like a tall order, but, nevertheless, Ostwald does achieve this through the construction of texts in which a given problem, or trigger, is followed by a dialogue of sorts, which occurs between the informal, questioning, and reflective tone of printed "Asides"--provided by the facilitator--and the more formal tone, and information-based content, of the "Learning Units" with which those "Asides" interact. In addition to telling the student "why their next section is relevant, what it means and how it relates to the phase problem itself" (Ostwald p.8), the "Aside" also provides an opportunity to chat to, and challenge, the student. Whilst Ostwald's design and use of "interactive written texts" provides a promising model for the external teaching element of the courses under discussion here, the teaching and learning opportunities provided by the residential schools at The University of New England, allow even the distance education students the opportunity to engage with selected "problems" in the lively, and collaborative context of group work
This inquiry into the suitability of problem-based learning as a means of facilitating the desired knowledge and skills outcomes of a Women's Studies program is still in its early days. At this point, however, it shows much potential, and the next step will be to organise a trial-run in the face-to-face context of a residential school, and, later, after considerable fine-tuning, take on the "problem" of producing interactive texts for those learning by distance mode.
Argyris, C. and Schon, D. (1974). Theory in Practice. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.
Barrows, H. and Tamblyn, R. (1980). Problem-Based Learning: An Approach to Medical Education. New York, Springer.
Boud, David. (1985). Problem-based learning in perspective. In D.Boud (Ed), Problem-Based Learning for the Professions. Sydney: HERDSA, pp.13-18.
Boud, D., Keogh, R. and Walker, D. (Eds) (1985). Reflection: Turning Experience into Learning. London: Kogan Page.
Ostwald, M.J. (1993). Problem-based learning and its application to distance education. In Ryan, G. (Ed), Research and Development in Problem-Based Learning, Volume I. Sydney: Australian Problem-Based Learning Network, p.321-331.
Schon, D. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner. New York: Basic Books.
Woods, D.R. (1983). Introducing explicit training in problem solving in our courses. Higher Education Research and Development, 2, 79-102.
| Author: Dr Jane O'Sullivan, The Department of English and Communication Studies, The University of New England. Email: josulli@metz.une.edu.au
Please cite as: O'Sullivan, J. (1996). Problem-based learning and interdisciplinary women's studies: Some introductory thoughts. Different Approaches: Theory and Practice in Higher Education. Proceedings HERDSA Conference 1996. Perth, Western Australia, 8-12 July. http://www.herdsa.org.au/confs/1996/osullivan.html |