Reflection on the Implementation of POPBL
The decision to use POPBL approach is made based on the 3 years experience in conducting the course using
traditional lecture and project based. Through that experience students were able to plan and manage the project but
they are still lack of research and argumentative ability when looking for a problem and discussing the issues. By
employing POPBL approach at least it has some structure at all phases. Most students are so used to the traditional
method whereby everything is given by the lecturers. Therefore it is not surprise when they said they feel kind of
lost at the very beginning of the class despite of the introduction and explanation given at the very beginning of the
class. They also failed to see the connectedness between the contents lectured because very few of the students
discuss about these in their reflective journal. Some of the students were compliant that the tasks given were over
whelming. However, I see this as their ability to manage their time well because all work has to be done in group.
Another challenge for them is they have to raise their own fund in order to have the project done. The faculty only
give some seed money which is not enough.
The positive aspect about students voices are they enjoy and learn so much through the community involvement.
Here they learn and apply the generic skills such as team and interpersonal communication. They also observed and
experiencing the learning in the real life situation (field) for example those who had programme with the aboriginal
people. What they need is more guidance as they are undergraduate students with full hands of assignments. This is
in line with what discussed by Strobel & Baneveld (2009).