The 3C3R Model: A Conceptual Framework for Designing Problems in PBL

Abstract

Well-designed problems are crucial for the success of problem-based learning (PBL). Previous discussions about designing problems for PBL have been rather general and inadequate in guiding educators and practitioners to design effective PBL problems. This paper introduces the 3C3R PBL problem design model as a conceptual framework for systematically designing optimal PBL problems. The 3C3R model comprises two classes of components: core components and processing components. Core components-including content, context, and connection-support content and conceptual learning, while processing components-consisting of researching, reasoning, and reflecting-concern students' cognitive processes and problem-solving skills. This paper discusses the model in terms of its theoretical basis, component functions, and the techniques used in designing PBL problems.

Seeing the landscape and the forest floor: changes made to improve the connectivity of concepts in a hybrid problem-based learning curriculum

“…However, our students maintained that although this is well received there is a danger, as warned by Hung, for students to compartmentalize knowledge and lose sight of the overview (Hung 2006). The critics of our application of PBL to one module only would argue that the connection of concepts emerges slowly over time in a full PBL curriculum (Conway and Little 2000).…”

“…However, it has been observed that students have a tendency not to be intrinsically apt to integrate what they have learned (Dolmans et al 1993;Drummond-Young and Mohide 2001;Lieux 2001). If the PBL curriculum provides no means for facilitating students to engage in a knowledge integration process and see the interconnections among the constituents (concepts, principles, procedures, and factual information) within a subject domain, students' "problem-packaged" knowledge could become "compartmental" knowledge (Hung 2006). Thus, students may be able to see the forest floor but not the landscape.…”

“…In Hung's (2006) 3C3R PBL problem design model, 'Connection' is one of the 3C components, which addresses the importance of facilitating students to interconnect related concepts and information within the domain knowledge through appropriate PBL curriculum design. In this paper, this Connection component is further described by Hung (one of the authors), as including two categories: these are 1) interweaving and 2) holistic.…”

“…In PBL, students are guided to establish their knowledge about the details on a forest floor. However, Hung (2006) cautioned that students' knowledge base may be compartmental if the conceptual connections among the problems within a PBL curriculum are not carefully designed. Consequently, as many researchers agree (see, for example, Dolmans et al 1993;Drummond-Young and Mohide 2001;Lieux 2001), conceptually disconnected PBL curricula may result in students' difficulty in integrating the subject domain.…”

“…This approach not only enhances student motivation as it provides relevance to the students' current lives; it also functions to afford implicit situational, cultural, and contextual information, which is critical to their practice of the subject knowledge but which is often ignored in traditional instructional methods (Mauffette, Kandlbinder and Soucisse 2004;Dolmans and Snellen-Balendong 1997). One of the strengths of the contextualization and authenticity of PBL problems is that it helps students acquire situational knowledge, which is critical for them to effectively retrieve and apply appropriate domain knowledge (Hung 2006). This situational knowledge is more tangible, detail-oriented, as opposed to content knowledge, which is more abstract, principle-oriented.…”