Using problem-based learning in a Chinese character class design: A case study of Korean learners of Chinese

Class design ³

Kang (2012: 60–64) provides the following recommendations for teachers using PBL in the classroom. First, the objectives and learning goals of a particular course should be formulated. Second, a ‘problem’ list to be used in the classroom should be created. Third, the criteria to evaluate PBL outcomes should be established. Fourth, the first lesson should start with an introduction to the overall philosophy, methods, and expectations of PBL. Fifth, the course should be based on the process presented in Barrows’ (1996) model, which is the most representative PBL model. ⁴ Sixth, the above process should be repeated. The design of a ‘Chinese-language reading’ class using the PBL model outlined above is presented in the following sections.

Instruction goals and utilization of PBL

In the present study, the class in which PBL was applied was ‘Chinese-language reading’, one of the Chinese-language major classes for freshmen at ‘A’ University. The goal of this class is to learn the exact pronunciation in the Chinese language; in parallel, students also acquire basic grammar, vocabulary, and sentence-building skills to improve their proficiency in Chinese and, more specifically, in their reading skills. This reading class is a comprehensive course in which students acquire and develop skills in four language modalities: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In this course, students also learn basic pronunciation through sentence reading and simple Chinese-character writing for beginners. In contrast to conversation classes, which mainly focus on spoken communication, the ‘Chinese-language reading’ class focuses on training Chinese characters and on reading and interpreting sentences, with a focus on improving writing using Chinese characters. Therefore, Chinese characters are an important learning item in this class.

In the present study, we aimed to use PBL during class to improve learners’ Chinese-character ability; however, there were many practical difficulties (e.g. the progress of the lesson, lack of the basic Chinese language among learners, etc.). Therefore, we attempted to use PBL in the group work format.

Class environment and group format

Case 1. 2016 Chinese language reading. The ‘Chinese-language reading’ course for the first-year students of A University in 2016 was held for 3 hours a week for a total of 15 weeks. Of the 19 students taking this course, 17 were in the first grade, and 2 were in the fourth grade. The students’ level of Chinese language was intermediate (HSK level 4–5). In organizing the students into groups, the learners were divided into a total of six groups, with each comprising three or four students, for further group work.

Case 2. 2017 Chinese language reading. The ‘Chinese-language reading’ course for the first-year students of A University in 2017 was held for 3 hours a week for 15 weeks. Of the 21 students taking this course, 17 were in the first grade and 4 were in the second grade. Two of the second-year students were double-majored students, and they were basic learners who had almost no prior knowledge of the Chinese language. Two other learners had some experience of learning the Chinese language for 1 year, but their skills were still basic. Seven of the first-year students had an intermediate level of the Chinese language, because they had learning experience before entering the school. The students were divided into seven groups, with each group consisting of three students, to perform the assignments of basic and intermediate levels.

PBL problems and task performance

In PBL, problems are a central tool for effective classroom operation and the improvement of learning effect. Therefore when designing a problem, it is necessary to create a realistic one with a complex and unstructured situation (Kang et al., 2013). Teachers can raise learners’ motivation while simultaneously increasing their interest by allowing learners to solve problems that meet these conditions. In addition, through the problem-solving process, learners can improve their information gathering abilities and knowledge acquisition, as well as positive learning attitudes, self-directed learning abilities, and cooperative learning abilities (Jang and Jeong, 2016). Considering the basic goals and problem characteristics of the PBL application presented earlier, in what follows we will discuss PBL issues designed in the present study. In our class design, we prioritized the following two points.

First, we focused on knowledge acquisition and use. The students already had some prior knowledge of the rules related to the Chinese characters. However, to describe this in textbooks or dictionaries with ease and fun, it requires understanding and learning about the rules. In this process, the content that they have already covered in the class but have not understood yet, or have not covered in detail during the lesson, can be obtained by re-examining the exceptional rules of comprehension and those Chinese characters that are difficult to comprehend, or learning by themselves to expand their knowledge in the end. To easily explain the sounds and meanings of Chinese characters, it is necessary to understand the composition principles of the Chinese characters, as well as phonetic composition and ideographic composition. In this process one can also identify and expand the acquired knowledge. An understanding of Chinese radicals, as well as the relationship between Chinese characters and Chinese language words, is also necessary.

The second point we focused on was improving students’ ability to select and apply information, problem-solving skills, and cooperation abilities. In the process of solving PBL problems, learners can improve their information-retrieval and processing capabilities by collecting and selecting various data related to Chinese characters, and by solving concrete and practical PBL problems related to real life. Furthermore, in the process of carrying out a task in a team, the ability to cooperate can also be improved. The contents of specific problems presented in this study are as follows.

Case 1. 2016 Chinese-language reading. <Creating Easy and Fun Chinese-characters Textbook>

Students were given a brief description of PBL during the first week of the course; prior to the midterm exam, the students were taught basic Chinese language skills such as Chinese Pinyin, pronunciation practice, and simple sentence reading. In the ninth session, the PBL problem was presented and concrete preparation for the task was performed. In addition, considering the difficulty of matching the time among the team members in the case of several group tasks, from the 10th session, 1 hour of the class was provided as discussion time. In the following 12th session, we made an interim presentation and introduced the Chinese-characters Textbook prepared by each group.

The students wrote a reflective group journal each week at the time of the discussion, checking each project’s progress and problems, searching for relevant information on the internet, and trying to find solutions. At this time we advised students not to focus on the formal aspects of the textbooks, but rather to try to diversify them in terms of both the format and the content. In addition, there were many students who did not know where to search for the materials related to Chinese-characters, so we informed those students of the many ways to search for them in Chinese Baidu, Chinese character study sites, and ancient Chinese-character search sites (‘小学堂’, etc.), and how to find relevant information (Chinese-language input method, etc.).

Case 2. 2017 Chinese-language reading. <Easy and Fun Chinese-character dictionary creation>

This assignment task was designed to focus on Chinese-character education, centering on Chinese radicals, so that students could clearly understand the concept of Chinese radicals in Chinese characters. Chinese radicals are important not only for classifying Chinese characters, but also for understanding letter meanings or searching for unfamiliar Chinese characters. We first classified the 858 Chinese characters listed in the Basic Vocabulary Table according to 186 Chinese radicals in the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary. Then we selected 10 Chinese radicals with the highest attachment-letter (部屬字). One of the 10 Chinese radical letters was selected as one of the Chinese radicals so as to perform the task of ‘making an easy and fun Chinese characters dictionary’ that would match the level of beginner Chinese language learners.

In addition, we tried to compare the types, meanings, and pronunciations of Chinese characters used in Korea and China. This was meant to allow the students to compare Chinese characters of Korea and China in order to better understand three types of differences between Chinese characters as used in the two countries – namely, the differences related to type, sound, and meaning. Based on the understanding of Chinese characters as the Chinese-language writing code, a Chinese-language word consisting of corresponding Chinese characters is found in the Basic Vocabulary Table. In this process, we can see how the meaning of Chinese characters is related to the meaning of Chinese language words. Through these processes, the students could more clearly understand the meaning of Chinese characters. In addition, the difference in Chinese characters as used in the two countries, as well as the relationship between Chinese characters and the Chinese language, could be better understood.

In the class process, we first showed concrete PBL problems in the ninth session and organized a group to perform the task. From the ninth-week session, we provided 1 hour of classroom discussion time for group discussion and wrote a weekly reflective journal. At the fourteenth session, we made an interim presentation to introduce the Chinese Characters Dictionary prepared by each group and, after the completion of the semester classes, the final homework and individual reflective journals were submitted.

As before, we provided the students with the minimum amount of information search and feedback to their questions raised during the discussion.

Presentation and evaluation

After each group discussion of about 2 weeks and 4 weeks, we conducted an interim presentation introducing the Chinese-character textbooks and the Chinese-character dictionaries produced by each group in the 12th and 14th session, respectively. At this time, while listening to each group’s presentation, the students were asked to note the advantages and disadvantages of the presentation on an anonymous form. After the completion of all presentations, the students were given a feedback sheet, which was submitted as a final assignment. At the end of the 15th week, the students were asked to submit individual reflective journals that included their final homework assignments and their feelings about the assignment, and the PBL sessions were completed.

We evaluated the interim presentations (for the quality of presentation, content, attitude, preparation, etc.) of each group and the final submission of the textbooks. In the course, we considered a PBL assignment score of 10 points (10%) to be a reasonable burden to enable students to perform their tasks faithfully while reducing the burden on learners about presentations and group work. In fact, the grade difference between grades A, B, and C in grades treated by a relative evaluation was less than one point, and two points in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Therefore, a score of 10 points was considered to be a significant factor in determining the final grade.

Analysis of reflective journals

The ‘reflective journal’ is used as a way of objectifying reflexive activities and thoughts through a reflection on the experiences, learning contents, and discussions with team members (Kang et al., 2013). Creating a reflective journal can help language learners to improve their self-efficacy and motivation by providing new perspectives and interpretations and by giving meaning to what is being learnt (Jang, 2015). A major factor in PBL is the ability to improve learners’ ability to learn and develop, as well as their ability to prepare for addressing real-world problems through acquired learning abilities, along with a variety of learning activities that attempt to solve problems (Chae, 2005). In this context, a reflective journal that recognizes and describes changes in the problem-solving process can be a process of learning per se.

For teachers, it is imperative to analyze reflective journals written by learners in order to consider the results of the problem-solving learning. By this analysis, teachers can identify the effects and difficulties of PBL, grasp the problem situation, evaluate the problem-solving process, as well as better understand learners’ feelings and what students have learnt (Jang and Jeong, 2016).

In our ‘Chinese-language reading’ class, we asked the students to write a group reflective journal twice in 2016 and five times in 2017 during the assignment performance. At the same time they submitted the final homework assignment, we asked the students to write down how they felt while doing this assignment.

The questions of the reflective journal by group included the following aspects: 1) what learners did that week; 2) newly acquired knowledge (Chinese characters, knowledge related to the Chinese language); 3) problem-solving cases (describing how the students solved problems by writing all the problems that occurred while doing the assignment on that day); 4) the textbook (dictionary) production progress; and 5) other aspects (e.g. suggestions). In this paper, the reflective journal was analyzed using NVivo, a software widely used for qualitative research analysis.

Among the reflective journal questions, the students rarely wrote answers to question 5); furthermore, in answering questions 1), 2), and 4), they mainly depicted research on the initial data of the task, described their preparation of the textbook (dictionary), provided some discussion of the format setting, described their newly acquired knowledge of Chinese characters, and discussed the role of group members in the production of teaching materials (dictionary).

Problem situations and solutions

Through reflective journal analysis, we summarized the problems and solutions that the learners had in carrying out PBL tasks, and we also attempted to look at the abilities that the learners acquired in solving the problem situation. Generally, this allows teachers to verify whether or not the intended PBL objectives have been realized. Table 1 summarizes the problems experienced by the learners during the task through the analysis of the reflective journals. In the class sessions, the students were assigned to create a reflective journal twice. In the first week, there were many problems related to the selection of Chinese characters, the teaching method, and the format of teaching materials; in the second week, the major problems were the contents of the textbook, presentation, and presentation preparation.

As can be seen in Table 1, the students experienced various problem situations, such as selecting Chinese characters, organizing textbooks (using Chinese-character classification, using ancient Chinese-character education methods, searching Chinese-character writing videos), and producing textbooks (insertion of visual materials and videos), etc. However, the students looked for ways to solve these issues.

As shown in Table 2, students had difficulties in studying Chinese-character arrangement and data to explain the types, sounds, and meanings of each Chinese character, as well as in obtaining audiovisual data. In addition, they invested a lot of effort in making their Chinese-character dictionaries easy to read and funny.

In the course of solving many of these problems in the assignment, the learners developed the five abilities that were presented as the basic goals of PBL. In this regard, the keywords discussed below represent the positive changes in learners in the course of assignment completion (Jang and Jeong, 2016).

First, there were keywords related to the skills of analyzing the given problem or task, selecting the required learning task, and looking for learning materials for problem solving and judging its suitability (information gathering ability). These keywords include ‘(internet) search’, ‘dictionary’, ‘(Chinese) sites’, ‘research’, and so on.

Second, there was another group of keywords related to the ability (learning ability improvement, knowledge acquisition). These keywords include ‘knowledge’, ‘Chinese radicals’, ‘stroke order’, ‘(learning) methods’, etc.

Third, there were keywords related to cooperative learning ability (cooperative learning), such as ‘team members’, ‘communication’, ‘conversation’, ‘consideration’, ‘understanding’, ‘coordination’, ‘appreciation’, and so forth.

The fourth group of keywords was related to communication ability and included the words such as ‘drawing pictures’, ‘video play’, ‘visual materials’, ‘story conception’, ‘image use’, etc.

Fifth, there were keywords related to life-long learning (self-directed learning ability), such as ‘for oneself, directly’, as well as the keywords related to improvement of learning attitudes, such as ‘confidence’, ‘active’, ‘fond’, ‘interest’, ‘participation’, ‘curiosity’, etc.

Therefore, while performing the assignments, the learners ‘for themselves’, ‘consulting’ with ‘team members’, through ‘searching’, and ‘researching’, it can be seen that they gained a lot of ‘knowledge (Chinese-radicals’, stroke order, etc.)’ about Chinese characters, and that in this process, ‘confidence’, ‘interest’, and ‘curiosity’ towards Chinese characters increased.

Outcome of using PBL

According to the results of research on the PBL learning effect, teaching learning using PBL has a higher learning effect than teaching learning that does not use PBL. Therefore, PBL is useful not only for improving cognitive learning effects, such as academic achievement, problem solving ability, critical thinking ability, comprehension ability, applicability, task performance ability, concept acquisition, etc., but also for enhancing affective learning effects, such as learning attitude, self-concept, learning interest, sociality, and intrinsic motivation (Yun, 2009). In the present study, the positive effect of PBL described above was confirmed. In the remainder of this paper, we examine the performance of PBL using reflective journals.

First, in order to investigate the improvement of Chinese-character ability of the learners through PBL pedagogy, we compared the written test results before and after performing the assignment task. The result showed that the number of students who correctly wrote all Chinese characters studied in the dictionary assignment was six before the task, and this number increased to nine after the task. In addition, the percentage of correct written answers increased by nine after the task as compared with before the task, accounting for 43% of all students. Specifically, after completing the PBL assignment, the students’ perception of Chinese radicals and character components increased. As a result, the average number of misspellings before and after the task decreased from 7% to 3%. ⁵

The students also learned how to more effectively remember and memorize Chinese characters through this assignment.

In addition, the improvement of the students’ Chinese character ability helped to improve their Chinese language ability. This point is reflected in one of the reflective journals: ‘I felt that it was a good time for me personally to be able to learn the basic Chinese-language vocabulary while preparing the Chinese-characters dictionary. I learned more of the Chinese language while doing research to create the dictionary’.

Second, previous studies demonstrated that PBL increases students’ motivation and enthusiasm in learning. In particular, PBL was found to have a very positive effect on students’ motivation for internal learning. PBL classes allow students to be clearly aware of their learning activities or learning progress. In addition, most of the PBL classes use ‘reflective journals’, which also stimulates students’ self-reflection activities on learning. Self-reflection activities and clear perception of this learning are to lead the learning activity of oneself more actively and throughout life, which is very meaningful because it is such a capability (Kang, 2012).

While Chinese-language teachers introduce learning methods such as a dictionary search and internet search in class so that learners can independently learn the Chinese language and Chinese characters, learners do not use these activities voluntarily. However, according to the reflective journals, in the process of producing Chinese-character textbooks and dictionaries, most students used the dictionary, the internet, and reference materials to solve problems.

In practice, we conducted two PBL assignments in the ‘Chinese-language reading’ class and provided students with common Chinese-character education methods, and related materials such as a centralized education method, a distributed education method, a pre-listening education method, a self-directed education method, a character-component-centered education method, a root (字根) education method, a Chinese-radical education method, etc. However, according to the results of our analysis of the students’ submissions, the students actually found their own educational methods that teachers did not offer. For example, there were the methods of using six creation principles of Chinese characters, writing education emphasizing stroke order, and methods using ancient Chinese characters. In the process of solving the problem, the students enjoyed the research process, expanded the area of ​​interest, and found new learning methods.

The knowledge and experience gained through PBL assignments can also help learners motivate themselves to be more specific and practical.

Third, the students improved their collaboration skills through performing the PBL assignment. Another point that should be pointed out as an effect of the PBL class is that PBL develops students’ cooperative learning skills and abilities through team activities. Previous studies have highlighted that students who participated in PBL classes significantly improved their cooperative skills, including 1) perception of the importance of cooperative learning; 2) shared ownership of the learning-process decision (autonomy); 3) the importance of reflection activities; 4) diversity (diverse perspectives, various forms of learning, etc.); 5) flexible and comfortable learning environment; 6) dramatic changes in existing views, thoughts, and attitudes toward learning; 7) perception of the help of peers and the importance of the concept of ‘community’; and 8) perception of the direct connection between learning and application (performance) (Kang, 2012).

In reflective journals written by the students in this study, although most learners were initially apprehensive of the team task, they successfully completed it and experienced positive emotions. The students reported that they experienced the first group work at the university as the main source of ‘fun’ during the task. Unlike the initial expectations that it would be difficult, the students found the process of sharing opinions and coordinating among the group members to be more enjoyable than expected.

In addition, there was anonymous peer evaluation during the middle presentation. According to the results of our analysis of reflective journals, peer evaluation helped to strengthen positive interaction among students:

Fourth, the PBL assignment improved the students’ problem-solving abilities. PBL encourages diverse and creative problem-solving methods, rather than providing a single correct answer, as PBL is more focused on the ability to present appropriate solutions depending on the situation (Chae, 2005). Through this PBL assignment, students found that there could be different solutions to the same problem. The problem situation that students faced in this assignment was how to classify and explain the selected Chinese characters. The solution was to choose one of the Chinese-character education methods offered by the teachers, or to design a new method. Therefore, there were groups that used Chinese radicals or character components, groups that used ancient Chinese characters or teaching methods that made use of the principle of making letters (such as the six creation principles of Chinese characters), and groups that introduced the Chinese characters in the way of a story by plotting the story themselves.

In solving the problem situation, learners experienced an extension of their perception by deepening their knowledge, improving data-collection skills, enhancing learning abilities, sharing various results, and finding various solutions to the same problem.