Educational Development Centre
Introduction
The Centre for Educational Development (CED) offers two of the first year general modules on cognitive skills, as well as training and development for all RP staff on matters relating to RP’s unique approach to teaching and learning. CED is also actively involved in educational research, student development, continuing education and training programmes, and external networking.
International PBL Symposium 2007
CED hosted the second International PBL Symposium themed “Reinventing PBL”, focused on the development of PBL as a concept for education. The symposium attracted 565 participants from over 25 countries and garnered excellent feedback. Graced by Mr Gan Kim Yong, the Minister of State for Education and Minister of State for Manpower, the event saw 80 presentations (research papers, PBL tutorials, workshops and posters) of which 25 were given by RP staff. The keynote addresses for the symposium were given by Prof Dan Pratt, Prof. Maggi Savin-Baden, Prof Henk Schmidt and RP’s own Dr Alwis.
One of the highlights of the symposium was a number of specially designed posters explaining RP’s One-day One-problem™ PBL approach. These posters expressed the views of students on RP’s PBL system.
It was all hands on deck with the administrative centres, schools and academic centres, and a Student Working Committee coming together to ensure the success of the symposium. The student leaders, in particular, impressed the delegates with their enthusiasm and professionalism.
Open House 2007
CED displayed an exhibit and ran two interactive “problems” during Open House 2007 to provide visitors with a first-hand experience of PBL. The PBL exhibit showcased works by students and screened videos on learning in an actual classroom at RP. The two interactive “problems” required visitors to solve a murder and a theft crime, and in the process, experience working together in a team, asking questions, piecing information together, and formulating a solution to the “problems”.
Continuing Education and Training Programmes
During the year, CED continued to provide training for a wide array of individuals from both government and private organisations, delivering a total of 172 learning units.
Under the Continuing Education and Training (CET) umbrella, CED conducted a series of workshops for Assumption English School, focused on student-centred learning. CED also continued to work with the Air Force School in providing developmental workshops for their staff. One such workshop was “Project Proliferation of Active Learning” which saw participants from the various Air Force branches learning about the different active learning pedagogies such as Case-Based studies, PBL and experiential learning.
A key highlight of the CET programmes was the successful completion of the first run of the Certificate in Organisational Facilitation (COF). CED is currently conducting the second run of the programme, having completed 36 learning units so far.
Research
The CED research team has collated a master list of CED staff research interests to enable necessary support for staff in their research and to map these projects against the larger longitudinal project. Research continues to be pivotal in RP’s training and curriculum and general promotion of RP-PBL among the education community.
CED has been collaborating with the Office of Student and Graduate Affairs (OSG) on a systematic programme of research on service learning. This research will not only pursue academic outcomes of article publication and dissemination but also garner feedback into the planning and execution of service learning projects. An initial methodology was piloted during a service learning trip to India in July 2006.
Prof Max Tani (economics, UNSW-Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA)), who had been collaborating with RP’s Kevin Carlson, visited CED to present initial findings. The work is scheduled to be submitted for publication in January 2007.
There are also ongoing research projects with Prof Dan Pratt and Dr John Collins from UBC, and Prof Henk Schmidt from Erasmus University.
During a visit to Hong Kong in November 2007, these three staff members visited the University of Hong Kong, the City University of Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Institute of Education to explore collaborative ties (including research collaborations) and to promote the PBL symposium.
Conferences
Director Glen O’Grady presented a research paper and a workshop at the premier international PBL conference in Peru. The paper examined incoming facilitators’ belief systems and their change while adapting to RP’s pedagogical environment. The workshop focused on how problems could be crafted.
Eleven other papers were presented at conferences: three overseas [November conferences: Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association (APERA) conference in Hong Kong and EDU-COM 2006 conference in Nong Khai, Thailand] and eight at an international conference sponsored by the National University of Singapore (NUS)– Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (TLHE). These papers span a broad range of topics, including student motivation and adaptation to RP’s innovative educational environment, student learning strategies, the influence of the PBL classroom on outcomes observed during service-learning trips, the use of analogies in problems to promote student critical thinking, scaffolding using worksheets in PBL, and styles of facilitator-student discourse and their effects on learning.
Student Activities
CED, under the leadership of the Student Development Committee (SDC), conducted a student workshop “Questions, why so many questions?” to enhance RP-PBL learning among students. The workshop explained the rationale behind facilitation and questioning in their learning, as well as the role that questions play in RP’s learning and problem solving process.
X-Synthesis Club held its first AGM to finalise the objectives of the Club as it transitioned from the old Club Who Knows.
Training and Certification
The training team was kept busy throughout the year, having conducted seven sessions of the Foundation programme and 35 Development programmes. A review of the PBL Foundation Training programme resulted in a number of amendments, particularly to the first two days of training. There is now greater emphasis on the alignment of beliefs and actions between staff and RP’s norms, expectations and beliefs.
In 2006, 37 RP facilitators received certification in PBL facilitation.
Two rounds of interviews were conducted for the Problem Crafter Certification which resulted in seven staff members being awarded different levels of Certified Problem Crafters, from Associate Crafter to Master Crafter.
EdTech
The newly formed EdTech team within CED experienced an exciting year as it explored ways to leverage RP’s use of technology in education.
The EdTech team is currently working on a Technology Development Centre (TDC) project on the use of gaming in PBL. It is also investigating the use of RP’s 2nd Life Island in the virtual world for PBL. CED hopes to receive Interactive and Digital Media (IDM) Funding for this project.
The EdTech team was involved in the production of a video that chronicles the key facilitation issues in the One-day One-problem™ approach that will be used for the Foundation training. The team is also working with some faculty staff from the School of Technology for the Arts (STA) in the X-Media Lab workshop on scoping a project entitled Campus Universe.
The team is taking the lead in the development of a remote learning initiative, aimed at customising the Elluminate Collaborative System so that is possible to replicate, as closely as possible, RP’s One-day One-problem™ pedagogy, via virtual facilitation. Training for the initial batch of staff has been conducted and will be followed by training for students in early April 2007.
Hosting Visitors
During the year, CED hosted a variety of guests who were keen to find out more about the RP-PBL process and discover how RP’s new campus at Woodlands is able to support this learning pedagogy. Some of the visitors were from:
- Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Centre for Education Development
- The Senior Management Programme by the Civil Service College
- Air Force School
- Southern College from Johor, Malaysia
- Ministry of Defence
- Bedok South Secondary School
- National Institute of Education’s (NIE) Masters programme (Chinese contingent)
- Punggol Secondary School
- Teachers’ Network
CED and the Office of Planning and International Operations (OPI) jointly hosted a number of senior academics from the Malaysia-Japan International University of Technology and shared RP’s pedagogical approach. CED staff also represented RP at the five-day Public Service Exhibition at Toa Payoh HDB Hub that showcased RP’s pedagogy and use of technology as examples of “best practise”.