During our most recent meeting on Friday 6th December, we welcomed Vicky Margree and Toby Lovat from the school of Humanities. They discussed their approach to small group teaching and how they assess the performance and engagement of their students. This led to a broader discussion about whether we could or should introduce a similar approach within PBL tutorials.
A recording of the session can be found below:
At our collaborative learning group meeting on Wednesday 19th June, we welcomed Professor Cavenaugh Kelly from Husson University, Maine, USA. He discussed how experiential approaches and the use of narrative are used to support learning for his students. This stimulated some fascinating discussions and provided some helpful reflections on how stories can support authenticity and emotional engagement within PBL.
A recording of the meeting can be found below.
We were able to enjoy a lively discussion with some former University of Brighton students at our most recent collaborative learning group meeting. Eva and Dale (former Occupational Therapy students), and Riley, Ani, and Chung (former Physiotherapy students) told us about their experiences of learning using a PBL approach and, also, how PBL had influenced their current clinical practice.
A recording of the session can be found here:
We were delighted to welcome Professor Arvind, Head of the York Law School, to speak with us about how PBL is used to teach his students. He described how PBL was ideal for teaching Law students in a way that captured the complexities and nuances of practice. He was also able to give valuable insights into how problems were used to develop critical thinking and other skills for that were relevant to the profession. Further topics were covered, including the cost-efficiency of PBL, development of the PBL ethos within departments, and the training of tutors.
Please find a recording of the meeting below:
It is hoped that we will be able to find further opportunities for inter-professional working using the PBL approach.
Professor Gaynor Sadlo attended our recent Collaborative Learning Group on Wednesday 4th October for a Q&A session. A recording of the one hour session can be found here.
As well as discussing her own experiences and personal journey, Gaynor answered questions about PBL and financial pressures, different approaches to PBL delivery, and also gave some top tips for supporting different types of learners within sessions.
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Following the success of our first session in January, we ran the second of our PBL training workshops on Tuesday 2nd May at Darley Road Campus in Eastbourne. This workshop was a great opportunity for any practitioners considering a future career in higher education or wishing to further their knowledge and understanding of the approach. It was particularly helpful for the clinicians who take our students on placement as it is always helpful to know how PBL is used with our budding occupational therapists.
The session aims were to:
We had 11 clinicians attend the session and it was a really positive morning. We have subsequently been able to offer some opportunities to facilitate PBL tutorial sessions with us.
Look out for further workshops in the future and do get in touch if you have an interest in supporting us with sessions at the university. We know our students love to hear from therapists in practice!
Jamie Liddell, Lecturer in Occupational Therapy (j.liddell2@brighton.ac.uk)
Professor Gaynor Sadlo joined the occupational therapy team meeting yesterday to support us with our upcoming periodic review and to think about how we maintain our high quality PBL curriculu
m on the Brighton course. For anyone who is not familiar with Gaynor or her work, she is a pioneer of problem based learning curriculum design and teaching and has published widely on the topic: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gaynor-Sadlo. Prior to her retirement in 2015, Gaynor taught on the occupational therapy course at the University of Brighton and still provides sessions as a visiting lecturer as well as for the Brighton Medical School and beyond.
During the meeting, Gaynor emphasised the importance of PBL in terms of developing self-directed learners and producing high quality occupational therapists. She also reminded us that PBL is an efficient way of learning, since it does four things simultaneously: 1) increases knowledge and understanding. 2) It allows students to practice clinical reasoning in every session. 3) It supports development of life-long learning skills. 4) Advances communication and team skills. In typical Gaynor fashion, she demonstrated this through the analogy of a Russian doll to show how the learning is layered and cumulative.
We certainly owe a debt of gratitude to Gaynor and her work continues to inspire the next generation of academics, teachers, and students.