Faciliation
Facilitation in education stems from the work of Rogers and Heron. Rogers suggests that the qualities of an effective facilitator include the ability to be seen as genuine to students, accepting and prizing their contributions, but also being able to offer empathic understanding. In PBL, students learn through addressing problems and reflecting on their experience, and they work in small groups being guided by a facilitator. Therefore, the teacher, through facilitation, seeks to foster a safe, trusting climate in which the learner is motivated to hope for success. Thus the role of the facilitator is key to the success of PBL as a learning methodology.
Burrows believes there should be genuine mutual respect between the students and facilitator and a partnership in learning should develop, which involves the facilitator as co-learner. However, this transition to the role of the facilitator of learning in PBL may not be easy for lecturers. Many have been used to more traditional 'transmissionist' approaches to teaching, and research exploring how to do this effectively is limited to research in centres where PBL has been used for a number of years, like Maastricht in Europe or McMaster in Canada. Tools for evaluating the role of facilitator in a PBL curriculum are scarce, and the available evidence limited to those identified in the systematic review grid.
PBL facilitation emphasises the importance of student-centred instead of teacher-centred education.Furthermore, Dolmans et al argue that a tutor's performance is not a stable characteristic but is partly situation specific. It is considered by many that a facilitator of PBL should have some subject matter expertise but more importantly should know how to facilitate the learning process. Therefore, it is argued that, in evaluating facilitation, consideration needs to be given to both the development of the facilitator, and the subsequent facilitation style. Murray and Savin-Baden (2000) offer a useful framework for PBL workshops to develop staff, whilst Johnston and Tinning (2001) offer the notion of a group reflective practice strategy to support new (and not so new) facilitators.
When evaluating facilitation approaches, consideration can be given to the various styles that individual facilitators apply to their facilitation. Wilkie (2004)demonstrated through her research that at least four styles can be determined:
- Liberating supporter : seen by minimal intervention by the facilitator, with promotion of self-directed learning. The focus here was on content acquisition.
- Directive conventionalist : Facilitators in this category tended to retain control of both the material to be learned and how students were expected to learn.
- Nurturing socializer : Here the emphasis was on 'student-centredness'. The facilitator nurtures and supports the students attempting to socialise them into an ideal (defined by the facilitator) of a 'good' nurse.
Pragmatic enabler : The facilitators in this group have developed their style through experience, recognising that one size does not fit all. These facilitators also recognise that the process of PBL is affected by external influences such as student characteristics, the nature of the problem, frame factors such as the assessment, and the amount of dialogue (Wilkie 2004:83)
Rogers (1969)
Rogers (1983)
Heron (1989)
Burrows (1997)
Dolmans et al (2002)
Wikie, K. (2004) Becoming Facilitative: Shifts in Lecturers' Approaches to Facilitating
Problem-based Learning. In Savin-Baden, M. & Wilkie, K. Challenging Research in Problem-based Learning. Maidenhead, Open University Press
Murray, I & Savin-Baden, M. (2000) Staff Development in Problem-based Learning. Teaching in Higher Education 5:1, 107-126
Johnston, A.K. & Tinning, R.S. (2001) Meeting the challenge of problem-based learning: developing the facilitators Nurse Education Today 21: 161-169