ERIC Number: EJ1231902
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-2051-3615
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Measuring the Impact of Context and Problem Based Learning Approaches on Students' Perceived Levels of Importance of Transferable & Workplace Skills
Williams, Dylan P.; Hin, Shane Lo Fan
New Directions in the Teaching of Physical Sciences, v12 n1 2017
Year-one chemistry students at two different institutions were asked to rate the importance of a series of discipline-specific, transferable and laboratory skills by responding to a series of Likert-type questions. The students at both institutions had studied similar curricula but had different levels of experience of the Context and Problem Based Learning (C/PBL) approach. Analysis of the responses to the questionnaire was conducted by determining the "Level of Importance" (reported as the percentage of students at each Institution rating each skills as "Important" or "Very Important"). Both cohorts assigned a very similar level of importance to all disciplinespecific and laboratory skills (i.e. under 10% difference). There were larger (>15%) differences between responses from the two institutions to statements on two transferable skills: Team-working Skills and Oral Presentation Skills, the cohort with exposure to C/PBL giving the higher level of importance in each case. This study has revealed some potentially important differences in the perceived level of importance chemistry students place on the development of oral presentation and team-working skills which may be related to the use of C/PBL in the early stages of degree programmes. The study has also shown that the level of importance students assign certain transferable skills (such as Problem Solving Skills) may be independent of exposure to C/PBL.
Descriptors: Problem Based Learning, Student Attitudes, Transfer of Training, Job Skills, College Freshmen, Chemistry, Teamwork, Public Speaking, Educational Benefits, Foreign Countries, Problem Solving, Numeracy, Computation, Active Learning, Science Experiments
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A