Abstract: Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is a popular model of instruction in health professions education, the discipline from which the model emerged, and beyond into other areas of higher education and secondary education. The model is student-centered and is shaped by a facilitator, whose role differs from a traditionally defined instructor. The facilitator is not intended to be a content expert but instead is expected to shape students’ conversation so that it is generative for learning. Carle Illinois College of Medicine (Carle Illinois) structures its curriculum around clinical case-based PBL sessions, which are led by one of four facilitators. Each case is developed as an invitation for student-directed learning of topics related to the presented case integrating clinical, basic sciences, ethics and engineering. Even though each of the four PBL groups start each week with the same case documents and probes, the conversations in each group unfold in unique ways. Facilitators need to be deeply engaged in the conversations to coach students toward considering important aspects of the case they may not have identified and to promote engagement and thinking about target concepts. This role requires dynamic and real-time decisions about when to intervene and how to best do so in the context of a particular case at a specific point in time of the discussion. This project first involves developing a process in which features extracted from speech data from PBL sessions can be displayed graphically in visualizations that will enable the identification of patterns in speech frequency, proportion, duration, and speaker turns. Then this project involves utilizing these visualizations to develop a Professional Learning Community (PLC), a model of professional development in which facilitators are positioned as resources for one another to co-construct the meaning of the visualizations and use them to improve their facilitation.
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