Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL)
in Humanities at Manchester
Julia McMorrow
Centre for Excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning (CEEBL)
Faculty of Humanities Coordinator
Geography, School of Environment and Development
The University of Manchester
julia.mcmorrow@manchester.ac.uk
Summary Slide
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Context
What’s in a name? PCL, PBL, EBL
Why use EBL
EBL in Humanities at Manchester
What students think of EBL
Further information
Discussion issues
Context
The University of Manchester
• Largest single HEI site in UK
• >34k students (26k UG)
• >500 UG degree programmes,
mostly specialist 3 yr
• 23 Schools, 4 Faculties; largest
is Humanities (44% UGs)
• 11.7k staff (3.8k academic, 1.9k
research)
• Britain’s only half billion £
university; £637m income pa
• 40% = external research income
Centre for Excellence in EnquiryBased Learning (CEEBL)
• 1 of 74 government-funded
Centres of Excellence in
Teaching & Learning (CETLs),
2005-2010
• Aim: enable enquiry-based
learning methods to be
developed widely across the
University at UG and PG
levels
• 6 Core staff and 4 part-time
Faculty coordinators
• Student sabbatical officer &
Faculty interns
• Flexible learning spaces
• Run workshops
• Fund 1 major project
per Faculty and 10-13
small projects pa
• Online resources
http://www.campus.man
chester.ac.uk/ceebl/
What’s in a name: ‘EBL’?
Some Humanities
team-based examples
Task-based
Learning (TBL)
‘crisp problem’
EBL / IBL
Problem-based
Learning (PBL)
‘messy problem’
Discovering answer
to a scenario
chosen to cover
specific content/skills
Devising solutions
to a scenario
chosen to cover
specific content/skills
Improving business
colleagues’ French
220 1st yr French
uncover
pronunciation/
grammar rules by
devising exercises
for colleagues in an
export company
Technology strategy
advisors
2nd Yr Organisations
Management and
Technology MBS
advise a Board of
Directors on the
technology strategy
of a firm
=
PCL?
Small-scale
empirical
investigations
Fieldwork or
case study
Culturally-defined
space fieldwork
200 1st yr
Phonetics
160 Geographers
1st yr Linguistics
produce
rolelearn
how to aelicit,
specificand
map,
based
transcribe
analyse
on walking
their
SWADESH
words
in
chosen
route.
live interviews with
Analyse decisionnative-speaker
making informants
process &
participant
map products.
Projects and
Research,
often bibliographic
Research-based
approach to projects
A profile of A.N. Other
researcher
Client-based
Green City
st
1 yr Geographers
projects
learn about the
3st yr Planning, etc work
research process by
with Manchester City
interviewing a tutor
Council on sustainable
and writing group
development projects.
report
Interdisciplinary
community of practice
compares strategies.
Why use EBL? (1)
In practice, most people learn….
• 10% of what they read
• 20% of what they hear
• 30% of what they see
Lectures
Passive
learning
• 50% of what they see and hear
• 70% of what they talk over with others
• 80% of what they do in real life
• 95% of what they teach somebody else
Biggs [1999], p78 UCLAN
http://www.uclan.ac.uk/ldu/resources/toolkit/lrg_groups/index.htm
EBL
Active
learning
Why use EBL? (2)
• Deeper learning; higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy of
cognitive educational objectives
Judging the outcome Evaluation
Pulling together several analyses
Synthesis
Making sense of the results
Analysis
Applying concepts
Application
Explaining concepts
Comprehension
Recalling facts
Knowledge
Depth of
learning
• Greater responsibility for own learning; student-centred
• Improved motivation, especially when real-life examples
• Improved confidence; ‘authentic mastery’, self efficacy
• Social interaction, teamwork
• Skills development; employability, learning to be researchers
Bloom, B.S. (ed.) (1956) Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of
Educational Goals: Handbook I, Cognitive Domain. New York: Toronto: Longmans
EBL transferable skills
Problem
solving, verbal,
communication
FINAL
PRESENTATION
/SOLUTION
Team working,
verbal,
negotiation,
critical
• Studentcentred
learning
• Tutors
facilitate
Apply
what’s
been learnt
Organisational,
leadership
TRIGGER
Define the
problem
Identify
Collate
what’s
REFLECT
REFLECT
research
already
known
Do
Allocate
individual
tasks to
or joint
fill gaps
research
Research,
time
management
TOPIC
Analytical,
critical, applying
existing
knowledge
Communication
, negotiation,
organisation
http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/ceebl/resources/general/guide_to_
fac_v1_bookletlayout.pdf
Devolution of process and content
STUDENT-led
Student decides
content, tutor
decides process
Tutor
decides
content &
process
Scaffolded
EBL
Lectures
TUTOR-led
Student
decides
content &
process
STUDENTled
Process
Content
TUTORled
Projects,
capstone
dissertation
Whole
curriculum
TBL/PBL
Tutor decides
content, student
decides process
EBL in Humanities at Manchester
• Extent of usage hard to quantify because
inherent, often not explicitly called EBL
• Very diverse
• Not whole curriculum, but most programmes
include full EBL or blended modules
• e-EBL common
• Appropriate pedagogy for interdisciplinary work
where transferrable skills paramount
Some CEEBL projects at Manchester
STUDENT-led
UG Interdis
team project
OMT
PBL
Literature
PBL
Clientbased
project
Process
Content
TUTORled
Access
program
PG Interdis
team project
Medicine
French
& Dentistry
TBL
curricula
TUTOR-led
STUDENTled
UG Interdisciplinary Team Project
Week 1: Icebreaker
• Introduction to course, teams and WebCT
Week 2: Topic statement; students selected topics
Week 3: Key problems and questions
Week 4: Storyboard
Week 5: Symposium
• Posters with oral presentations
Week 6: Question Time and Plenary
• Cross-discipline briefing
• Peer and faciltator assessed
• Scaffolded process; WebCT posting required for each
stage, Worked ‘AIDS’ example for each.
• WebCT for all documents, poster archive, etc.
Discussion Board for group interaction & feedback
PG interdisciplinary module
• Invited PGs Geography, Medicine, Life
Sciences, PREST, Education (6
international) compared solutions to 2
contrasting water quality scenarios
• PBL over 4 weeks,
• WebCT to ease timetabling, as with UG IDTP
‘Fatima scenario’
Arsenic poisoning of
water supply in
Bangladesh
‘Pennines scenario’
water supply issues
in S. Pennines
Groups
of 4
Snowballing;
groups negotiate
solutions to form
a common plan
Plenary:
compare plans for
each scenario
What students think of EBL
I felt that I was at university rather than at school [UG IDTP]
This has been a very demanding
course in terms of how challenging
the work has been…. [PG IDTP]
Learning independently and presenting
what you’ve learnt is very exciting, although
can be nerve-racking [French TBL]
*
I found this very
frustrating but have
come away with
some positive things
[French TBL]
We didn’t have any
teaching. We had
to learn it
ourselves!
[Comp Sci]
You had to plan and so you learnt
so much….it was work you
WANTED to do because YOU
CHOSE to do it [UG IDTP]
Further information: CD
http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/ceebl
julia.mcmorrow@manchester.ac.uk
Some discussion points
• Does EBL/PCL dilute the discipline?
- Quality over quantity of content? External accreditation
- Transferable skills over subject knowledge?
• Implications for assessment
- Process as well as product
- Team or individual mark
• Managing academic staff expectations
- Teaching styles differ
- Learning to let go; facilitation training
• Managing student expectations
- ‘We had to learn it ourselves’
- Learning styles differ, cultural expectations, student interns
- Good teamwork is not a given
• Resources
- Learning spaces
- Materials
- Staffing