Problem Based Learning Speaker at ASEE

In the end of June while at the American Society of Engineering Education national conference in Louisville, I attended a distinguished lecturer presentation by Dr. David Jonassen from the University of Missouri. He spoke about the power of problem/project based learning.

Near the end of the speech, he made this statement: "Problem Based Learning is the single greatest advancement in education in the last 25 years". The focus of the presentation was on transforming the way we teach engineering students. Another quote: "The nature of the problems that engineers solve is quite different from the problems we ask engineering students to solve."

Dr. Jonassen continued to completely make the case for the IRE model of engineering education. Additionally, he gave me several ideas for improving the way do business. Here are some more comments I took from the workshop:

• engineers solve ill-structured, non-standard, unanticipated problems
• argumentation is one of the most powerful learning tools
• understanding is closely related to students' abilities to ask meaningful questions
• work to get our students to articulate how they think
• teach students to use concept maps to represent relationships
• pbl brings authenticity, intentionality, and conceptual anchoring to the learning process
• experts base everything they know on their experiences...students need to begin building their experiences...stories are a way for students to gain experiences from practicing engineers

and lots more!

• Dr. Jonassen has a new book coming out: Learning to Solve Problems: A Handbook for Designing Problem-Solving Environments.

I am going to get a copy as soon as it is released.

Ron