Blended learning and PBL: An interactional ethnographic approach to understanding knowledge construction in-situ

Abstract

This chapter examines the complexities of problem-based learning (PBL) in a technology-rich environment. Using an interactional ethnography (IE) approach, this study systematically examines processes of learning and student induction into disciplinary discourse in an undergraduate dental education programme. Recordings (~ 4 hrs.) of one problem-based learning tutorial group (n=8) were analyzed across a five-day problem cycle to identify how educational technologies and online resources influenced the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge in first-year dentistry students. By tracing key events (Interactive Whiteboard use), texts (digital texts and learning objects), and discourse surrounding these texts across a single problem cycle, we present findings on how interactive whiteboard and in-house and open-access resources supported group and individual ‘languaging’ for flexible knowledge-building.