Problem-based learning forces students to teach themselves

FORM SIX STUDENT Esther Chiu Mei-yi and her classmates recently had to get their heads round a novel concept. They needed to think in class.

'We only normally need to use our brains when we do homework or revising, so that took a bit of getting used to,' the 18-year-old student at Fukien Secondary School in Siu Sai Wan said.

What had woken Esther and her classmates' grey matter from its usual state of slumber was the experimental use of a teaching method designed to formulate critical thinking and independent learning.

Called 'problem-based learning', the technique involves students essentially teaching themselves through investigating and discussing real-life case studies. A major break with Hong Kong's traditional teacher-oriented approach to teaching, the technique's proponents say it equips students with the lifelong learning tools they are expected to acquire as part of the new senior secondary school curriculum, set to be introduced in three years' time.

'Researching and finding the information is a lot more time consuming,' said Callista Cho Wai-in, 17. 'It is a more engaging way of learning. It's a lot less boring.'

Henry Lee Wai-hung, the liberal studies and Chinese history teacher at the school who ran the study as part of a two-year research project at City University of Hong Kong, agreed. 'They weren't used to working on their own, learning for themselves instead of simply taking in what the teacher was saying,' he said.