Pre-Symposium Workshops

The workshop details are as follows:

Cognition, Creativity, and Assessment

Synopsis

"How can assessment best encourage and reward the development of the skills which we wish students to learn? Innovative teaching practices which aim at fostering creative problem-solving skills among students are most successful when the instruments used to grade students in the course reflect an equal degree of innovation. This workshop will explore both the educational aims of the participants and ways in which various exercises (class discussion, papers, projects, and examinations) can be coordinated in order to further those aims. In particular we will pay attention to strategies to promote attention to process (higher level reasoning skills, for example) and transfer of learning. Participants will be encouraged to present examples and problems from their own teaching for consideration by the group."

Problem-based Learning

Synopsis

"Problem-based learning (PBL) is grounded in the belief that learning is most effective when students are actively involved and learn in the context in which the knowledge is to be used"
(Boud, D. & Feletti, G.E., 1997)

PBL was conceived about three decades ago as a more holistic and innovative educational approach to student learning in medical school. Essentially, PBL is problem-first learning (i.e. before the acquisition of new knowledge) and it promotes active learning in small groups. PBL is highly student-centred and fosters the development of individual and group accountability in learning, as well as the development of independent, self-directed, lifelong learning skills. PBL is now widely incorporated into many professional and academic curricula in higher education.

This Workshop is specially designed for teachers from non-medical disciplines and will include discussions focused on the PBL process, the role of teachers and students as tutors and learners, and the effective and efficient use of educational resource in PBL. Participants will also be actively involved in a workshop session in applying the principles of PBL in a PBL learning environment.