Is Collaboration a Necessary Component of Problem-Based Learning?

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 9
  In Poster Session: Supporting Learning Through Fundamental Cognitive Processes

Abstract

A crossed, within-subjects design was used to compare the academic performance of participants across three distinct experimental problem-based learning (PBL) conditions: PBL-Positive Interdependence, PBL-High Positive Interdependence, and PBL-Independent. The results of the current study suggest that the collaborative aspect of PBL is essential to the success of students engaged in this form of instruction. The the key ingredient to ensuring student success in collaborative learning environments may rest on providing an appropriate degree of structure to scaffold student development of skills related to the collaborative process. These findings have vast implications for the way that the design of PBL curriculum and instruction should be approached across academic disciplines.

Authors

• Angela M. O'Donnell, Rutgers University

• Christopher Manente, GSAPP/Rutgers University