Cross-Analyses of Problem-Based Learning Tutorials In Action Across Three Clinical Education Programs: A Collective Case Study

Abstract

Purpose This poster presents a cross-case analysis (Borman et al., 2006) of the learning experiences of 53 Year 3 undergraduate students and seven facilitators in PBL tutorials within three clinical education programs in Hong Kong. The study aims to identify differences and similarities across the PBL tutorials to gain deeper understandings of the situated nature of PBL tutorials and add to the growing interest in interactional studies in PBL (Bridges & Imafuku, 2020).

Theoretical Framework This study is guided by the principles of Interactional Ethnography (IE) (Green & Bridges, 2018), as it aligns with the socio-constructivist nature of PBL (Walker et al., 2015). The IE guides the exploration of the cultural practices and situated processes in (co)constructing knowledge and formulating solutions to given problems through the participants’ discursive and social interactions (Green et al., 2012) within PBL tutorial sessions in three undergraduate clinical education settings. Given the multiple case studies and the goal to gain comprehensive knowledge of situated learning experiences in PBL tutorials, this cross-case analysis constitutes a collective case study (Stake, 2000).

Methods I conducted video analysis of nine PBL tutorial sessions. Through multiple (re)viewings of the video records, I constructed a running record of the events in each tutorial session (Green et al., 2007). I adopted microethnographic discourse analysis to analyze transcripts of selected events to identify the differences and similarities of the learning experiences of the participants across the PBL tutorial sessions (Bloome et al., 2005).

Data sources To conduct the cross-case analysis, I used 9 video records (14 hours) of PBL tutorials across three undergraduate clinical education sites (dental, medical, and hearing and speech). I purposefully selected one PBL problem that was enacted in two separate groups of students in each clinical education to examine the learning experiences in nine PBL tutorial sessions.

Results The collective case study (Stake, 2000) revealed differences and similarities in the enactment of PBL tutorials across the three clinical education settings. The differences reflect the situated practices of the clinical program, the facilitator’s adaptation of the PBL pedagogical practices, and the dynamics within the small group of students (Hmelo-Silver, 2012). The common characteristics across the PBL tutorials are salient in the cultural practices, nature of the learning environment, and the goals of the PBL. There is an automaticity in the ways they discussed the problem and built on each other’s ideas as well as an immediacy of concerted processes of reflection-evaluation-integration of knowledge and perspectives in tackling the given problem. The learning environment, equipped with appropriate tools as needed, reflects a space for experimentation of ideas. The facilitator’s ways of orchestrating the collaboration, coordination, and cooperation showed evidence of acquisition, accumulation and (co)construction of disciplinary knowledge and professional practices.

Scholarly Significance Findings from this collective case study (Stake, 2000) shows characteristics of PBL tutorials that can be transferred across various situated adaptations of PBL in higher education. Thus, insights from this study can inform PBL design at a program, curriculum, and pedagogy levels across discipline and school settings.