Scenario-based learning

A very good example of learning by doing is scenario-based learning. Scenario-based learning is a pedagogical design where one or more learning scenarios serve to anchor and contextualize all learning and teaching activities (see Naidu, Menon, Gunawardena, Lekamge & Karunanayaka, 2005). The scenarios in these educational settings are usually drawn from real life situations. They may be contrived but they aim to be as authentic as possible and reflect the variety and complexity that is part of real life situations. For the teacher and the tutor this scenario provides a meaningful context which can be used to explain abstract concepts, principles and procedures a lot more easily. For the learner, it serves to make learning relevant, meaningful and useful.

Typically a good learning scenario will reflect a common occurrence from the relevant field (see Naidu, Menon, Gunawardena, Lekamge & Karunanayaka, 2005). It may be a case, problem or incident that is commonly encountered in the workplace. Using such cases, problems or incidences from the workplace in the education of learners serves to more adequately prepare them for the workforce as opposed to focusing their attention on the mastery of the subject matter content. The use of such scenarios is particularly relevant and meaningful in professional education.

A typically good learning scenario will sound like a story or a narrative of a common occurrence. It will have a context, a plot, characters and other related parameters. It usually involves a precipitating event which places the learner or a group of learners in a role, or roles that will require them to deal with the situation or problems caused by the event. The roles that learners might be asked to assume are those that they are likely to play in real life as they enter the workforce. Attached to these roles, will be goals that learners will be required to achieve. In order to achieve these  goals they will be assigned numerous tasks and activities, some of which may require them to collaborate with their peers and other relevant groups, if these are part of the intended learning outcomes of their subject. While these activities essentially serve as learning enhancement exercises, a selection of them could be made assessable and given a mark which would contribute to the student’s final grade in the subject.

In order to attain the goals that learners are assigned in the scenario, and complete all the required activities, learners will have access to a wide range of relevant resources. These resources could include textbooks and other relevant reading material, multimedia content, and also experiences from the field of how expert practitioners have gone about solving or dealing with similar cases, situations, problems or incidences (see Schank, 1997; Schank, Fano, Jona & Bell, 1994). The learning scenario, its accompanying learning activities, and the assessment tasks serve as essential scaffolds for promoting and engendering meaningful learning activity (see Naidu, Menon, Gunawardena, Lekamge & Karunanayaka, 2005). They also serve to contextualize learning and motivate learners who are turned off by too much focus on the mastery of the subject matter content and not enough on practical and generalizable skills. The assessment tasks and learning activities which the students are assigned are critical to the achievement of the intended learning outcomes. It is therefore essential that they are congruent with the intended learning outcomes for the subject. While they are embedded within the learning scenario they must be carefully designed and skillfully applied to direct students to the core subject matter content. By successfully completing these assessment tasks and learning activities, it is expected that learners will have accomplished the intended learning outcomes of the subject.