What good facilitators do to promote effective student learning in a problem-based learning environment: implications for design of staff development programmes

This paper is an extension of an earlier study that examined the factors influencing facilitators’ successful adaptation to a problem-based learning (PBL) environment. The current study focuses on the specific strategies employed by effective facilitators in the PBL classroom to promote critical thinking as well as collaborative and self-directed learning among learners. Republic Polytechnic’s Certificate in Facilitation programme is used as a benchmark of quality facilitation in order to assess the effectiveness of facilitator actions and discourse in meeting these student goals. The aims of this qualitative study are twofold: 1. to describe what good facilitators do in the classroom and how they do it, and 2. to consider how staff development initiatives can support faculty in becoming good facilitators. Data from12 candidates nominated for the Outstanding Facilitator Award over the last four years is collected through video classroom recordings, lesson observation reports and teaching portfolios and then analysed to detect facilitation patterns in the range of strategies and discourse used. Findings reveal three themes influencing the quality of teaching and learning in the PBL classroom: 1. questioning techniques of facilitators; 2. timeliness of facilitator response; and 3. facilitator awareness of unique learning goals and situations. The result of this study suggests the way staff development programmes are designed and conducted needs to be relooked in order to better support the training and learning needs of PBL facilitators in achieving greater alignment between classroom practices and certification expectations. This paper ends with a discussion of some of the initiatives implemented in the last six months to address these gaps in our staff development framework, specifically the introduction of a peer coaching framework and a training roadmap for academic staff at different stages of their professional development.