News

Dr Elaine McDonald and Dr Sabrina Fitzsimons of DCU CREATE shared their experience of Challenge Based Learning at the recent Teaching Enhancement Unit 'Sipping Point Session' (May, 2024)

Challenge-Based Learning within Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

Their talk focused on the pedagogical redesign of a final year Sociology of Education module from a traditional lecture format to a Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) approach.

"The module has a strong focus on inclusion. It examines issues such as the relationship between school and society, educational disadvantage, gender in education, working with parents, and interculturalism. Our aspiration for this module was to embrace significant change in our pedagogy in order to underscore the learners' pivotal role as 'change agents' (Chen, 2005).

In line with CBL approaches, the module includes input from expert stakeholders collaborating with us to design a series of authentic real-life school-based ‘Challenges’. Working in teams, the solution to the challenge is presented in poster and recorded presentation format and culminates in a CBL showcase event. Data on the module's effectiveness was gathered informally and formally through in-class discussions, online surveys, and reflections. In this talk, we look forward to sharing our experiences" 

With many thanks to Clare Gormley and the Teaching Enhancement Unit for the opportunity to share our DCU CREATE CBL experience.