Barrows’ Integration of Cognitive and Clinical Psychology in PBL Tutor Guidelines
Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem
Barrows' Integration of Cognitive and Clinical Psycholog y in PBL Tutor Guidelines
Kareen McCaughan Dr. 0 1 2
0 McMaster University
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The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning • volume 7, no. 1 (Spring 2013)
Howard Barrows’ problem-based learning (PBL) tutor guidelines were built on a strong
educational and cognitive psychology conceptual framework. Similarities have been noted
between PBL and the educational theories developed by John Dewey
(Koschmann, 2001;
Neville, 1999)
and the tenets of constructivism
(Colliver, 2002; Miflin, 2004; Savery & Duffy,
1995; Whitman, 1993; Windschitl, 2002)
. This paper examines conceptual consistencies
between the nondirective PBL tutor role described by Barrows (1980; 1988; 2000; 2007),
the client-centered therapist, and the actions of the teacher using Dewey’s educational
theories. Dewey’s theories addressed the behaviors of teachers that promoted student
inquiry, problem-solving learning experiences, and self-direction. Rogers’s client-centered
therapy applied similar theoretical concepts to a therapeutic context. Barrows integrated
the concepts, purposes and skills of facilitation held by Dewey and Rogers in his
recommendations for PBL tutors.
A PBL tutorial consists of small-group, collaborative, self-directed learning. Ideally the
group size is limited to seven students plus a tutor. The number of tutorials and their length
varies with the curriculum. In a typical health science curriculum tutorials occur twice a
week for a three-hour period. The term“tutor”is used instead of teacher to underscore that
the role is to facilitate the learning process. The focus of the tutorial is to engage students
in a self-directed learning process that will help them uncover their learning issues using a
problematic situation as a trigger. For example, in a typical health science PBL curriculum,
PBL tutorial groups are presented with a clinical case, and the tutor is a clinician. In the
process of discussing a case, students shift back and forth between individual and group
learning. They identify individual learning issues (what they know and what they need
to know), develop group learning objectives, engage in higher order thinking skills, such
as analysis, hypothesis generation, decision-making, problem-solving, and evaluation, in
tandem with communicating their thinking verbally to group members. The focus in this
paper is on the techniques that the tutor, teacher or therapist uses with the individual
student and between students in a small-group setting.
PBL Tutor Guidelines
Barrows was one of the first PBL experts to provide guidance on facilitating the
educational concepts of PBL, at a time when the literature focused on the PBL student and
compared student success using PBL with traditional learning methods. He wrote
extensively on the attitudes, beliefs, characteristics, and actions a teacher would need to
be a successful PBL tutor
(Barrows, 1988; Barrows & Tamblyn, 1980; Barrows & Wee, 2007;
Hmelo-Silver & Barrows, 2006)
. The combination of Barrows’ background as a physician
and educator resulted in tireless efforts to convey the importance of the PBL tutor role.
As a neurologist, he was an expert on the neurological system including how the brain
processes information when learning. As an educator, he was keenly aware of the impact
of teacher behaviors in learning situations. As an individual, Barrows cared deeply about
building teachers’ knowledge of cognition and learning, as well as their facilitation skills.
Barrows was not only a scholar who wrote about nondirective facilitation, he epitomized
the ideal nondirective facilitator. His ability to do so may have resulted from his training
in therapeutic communication skills during his graduate medical education.
The role of the PBL tutor was first published at McMaster University as part of a
practical monograph on how to operate a small-group PBL tutorial in medical education
(Small
Group Learning in Medical Education, 1972)
. In his PBL works, Barrows emphasized the role
of the tutor as critical to PBL success. He was mindful that most new PBL tutors were
unaccustomed to the tutor role and considered the nature of tutoring as an unplanned variable in
the quality of PBL that acts as a major determinant of the method’s success
(Barrows, 1986)
.
Even though students are expected to behave differently from traditional students
in PBL, new PBL educators often expect to use the same communication techniques,
actions, and strategies as traditional teaching methods. They carry conceptions of (...truncated)