PREPARING FUTURE PLANT PATHOLOGISTS

USING A PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING APPROACH

Tarkus Suganda, Lucyana Djaja, Endah Yulia, and Fitri Widiantini

Department of Plant Protection
Faculty of Agriculture Universitas Padjadjaran
Jatinangor, Bandung 40600
(tarkussuganda@unpad.ac.id)

SUMMARY

Globalization has tremendous impacts to university graduates. It creates uncertainties and

pressures due to high competitiveness in obtaining a prospective career. Recent world’s
trend to switch away from agriculture-based economy must be anticipated by agricultural
schools. Job scarcity in agricultural field is a threat to the sustainability of agricultural
education, especially to many department of plant protections.

In order to anticipate these situations, we proposed to implement a problem-based learning

(PBL) curriculum as well as PBL learning method, in order to produce more prepared
graduates. PBL has been used since 1969 in many medical schools and has proved to be
effective in producing very qualified graduates. Since plant pathologists are acting, operating,
doing, and practicing, almost equal with medical doctors, therefore we believe that PBL can
also be used effectively for preparing a better plant pathologists. In a PBL approach, students
are trained not only to master in their field of study (plant protection) but also are prepared
to be able to solve any kind of problems they faced since during their study courses, we use
real life problems as the core of learning process.

Initially funded by the SP4 (a grant from Directorate General for Higher Education, Ministry
of National Education) we started the program by introducing the PBL concept to all teachers
at the department. We are now funded by the A3 grant from the government to further
accelerate the implementation of PBL in our department. Despite the numerous benefits that
we can expect from the PBL, obstacles to its implementation are also huge, mostly due to
reluctance of lecturers and students to practice this new approach of learning as well as
problems arose due to lack of supporting facilities.

INTRODUCTION

Higher education in plant pathology, and in agriculture in general, especially in Indonesia is

facing crises. Interest of high school’s graduate to study plant protection (plant pathology) is
decreasing from year-to-year. Some universities experienced the number of student applied
to the Department of Plant Protection was even lower than the number of its capacity that
they can carry out. Those students accepted in the Department of Plant Protection mostly
are from the second or the third choices. Whereas, their test scores of applicants to the

A paper presented at ACPP Yogyakarta, Agustus 2007

Department of Plant Protection were among the lowest in the National Selection (SPMB).
Low test scores, coupled with low motivation of new students, in turn will cause education in
plant protection even more difficult.

When our students graduated, they find that career as a plant pathologist is very, very difficult
to find. In order to get this very small job opportunity, they have to compete with agronomists
who generally considered as ‘the know everything graduate in agriculture’. A recent survey
carried out by the SWAPLUS Magazine, a well-known business magazine in Indonesia revealed
that Indonesian business even do not recognize plant protection as a skill needed by their
company.

Table 1. Ten study programs of undergraduate (S1) level whose graduates are mostly
demanded by business world in 2007
Study Program %
1. Economics/Management/Accountancy/Marketing 21.4
2. Engineering (Civil, Electronics, Machine, Architecture, Industrial, 15.5
Chemical)
3. Information Technology (Management, Engineering) 14.2
4. Law 13.9
5. Communication 11.1
6. Agricultural Technology 10.8
7. Pure Science 10.0
8. Agriculture (Agronomy, Fishery, Animal Husbandry) 8.8
9. Medicine/Veterinary 7.2
10. Social, Politics, International Relations 6.0
(Source : SWAPLUS Magazine, July 2007)

Certainly, we believe that this unpleasant condition experiencing by agricultural (and plant
protection) education as described above is not due to either irrelevancy of our field of study
with the development of economy of the country or not due to the fact that our field of study
is less important for human life. We believe that these are more due to lack of understanding
of people about what our contribution we can make to human welfare through protecting
the flourish of production of agricultural crops and the sustainability of nature.

However, the fact that our graduates are facing difficulty in finding a job should be of our
main concern, since if this fact is ignored, we will have lower and lower student intake in the
coming year. With all conditions described above, we have to change our strategy in
preparing our graduates to be able to compete in global competition.

One of the strategies that we believe will be able to prepare a better and readier graduates is
to change the way of educating them. We suggest a new motto as a replacement of the old
one, which was “preparing a high-skilled graduate in plant protection”. We realized that using
this motto, we prepared a very narrow skill graduates, making them difficult when a related
job is not available. Therefore, we proposed a new motto, which is “to prepare graduates
who can do anything, moreover plant protection”.

A paper presented at ACPP Yogyakarta, Agustus 2007

The reasons behind the change in our educational motto are the facts that besides the
scarceness of job in plant protection, also the facts that in order to find a job, a skill (or
appropriately termed ‘hard skill’) is not enough for getting a job. Graduates are required to
have some of the soft skills which are demanded also by employers. The following table also
a summary of similar survey carried out by the SWAPLUS Magazine.

Table 2. Characteristics of university graduate demanded by employers

Characteristic Description %
Honest 15.4
Analytical thinking 14.3
Computer literacy 14.0
Responsible 12.3
Discipline 12.3
Team work 10.8
Good personal interpersonalship 10.0
Foreign language literacy 9.2
High motivated 9.2
Orientation to result 8.0
(Source : SWAPLUS Magazine, July 2007)

Some of the soft skills described above can not be taught in the classroom, but they should
be experienced by students during the involvement in non curricular activities. Among those
soft skills that can be taught in the classroom, they can not be given using the conservative
teaching method. For example, general teaching method (an oral lecture given by a lecturer)
has less impact in shaping students to be a discipline person, to think analytically, to show a
team work, to have a computer literacy, especially using an ICT, etc. Therefore, we have to
shift our teaching method, from a lecturer-centered to a student-centered one.

Our view in changing our teaching method to a student-centered method is also backed up
by the result of the SWAPLUS survey which revealed that the No. 1 reason (35.4% of the
employers surveyed) why university graduates are unsatisfying was due to teaching
methodology did not shape student’s competency or curriculum was irrelevant with the
needs of business industry.

USING A PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN A STUDENT-CENTERED TEACHING

Our paper, is not intended to describe in an excessive details what a problem-based learning
(PBL) is, but rather, this paper is to inform about our early stage experience in switching our
teaching method to a student-centered one. We suggest readers to refer to various
literatures on PBL since those literature are enourmous and easy to be found,

Problem-based learning was firstly introduced by Prof. Howard S. Barrows and used in the
Faculty of Medicine MacMaster University, Canada. Now more and more universities and
field of studies are applying PBL. In brief, a PBL method starts a learning process by
introducing students to an ill-structured, complex problem, highly related with the topic of
A paper presented at ACPP Yogyakarta, Agustus 2007
learning, and a real-life application of the knowledge learned. Students are required to work
in (small) group so that their team-work ability is exposed. Students firstly analyze the
problems and determine what they already known about the problem, then they propose
their opinion and solution, determine the remaining issues needs to be learned, search
information from different sources using various methods, report back to the group about
their findings, discuss, and revise their view about the solution to the problem. In the PBL
class, students are the actors of learning, whereas lecturers are acting more as facilitators to
support the learning process.

In a conservative teaching method, lecturer provide all science and knowledge. Science and
knowledge develop much faster outside university. Anything given in the class will soon
become obsolete at the time students graduated. In the PBL format, students are trained to
know how to access science and to search knowledge using a various ways, especially using
an ICT, so that they can cope with recent development of science and knowledge, instead.

Our additional reason to use a PBL format, is that in fact plant pathologists is very much similar
with human doctors. The method and approach in diagnosing and curing the diseases are
quite similar, for example in using Koch’s Postulate. The only difference is the object, which
is human in medicine and plant in plant pathology. There is a joke that diagnosing plant
diseases is even more difficult than diagnosing human diseases, since plant pathologist’s
patients can not answer to diagnostic questions.

The outcomes of the PBL learning format are as indicated elsewhere are producing graduates
who have problem-solving skills, self-directed learning skills, ability to find and use
appropriate resources, critical thinking, measurable knowledge base, performance ability,
social and ethical skills, self-sufficient and self-motivated, ability to use computer, leadership
skills, ability to work on a team, communication skills, proactive thinking, and congruence
with workplace skills.

WHERE ARE WE NOW IN PBL LEARNING FORMAT?

Our department, Department of Plant Protection Faculty of Agriculture Universitas

Padjadjaran is still in early stage in applying PBL as a learning strategy. We inisiated the
project using an SP4 (a project funded by the Directorate General of Higher Education,
Ministry of National Education, DGHE-MONE) for two years. During this period, we spent
time mostly to introduced ourselves to PBL and to persuade lecturers to try new method of
teaching. It was a painful and difficult task since reluctancy to the change proposed was quite
strong, especially showed by senior lecturers.

Not much progress that we can reported so far, except there are some developments in the
performance of our students in several skills which we believed were due to the
implementation of PBL teaching methods. Students are now having increasing computer and
multimedia literacy, very active in discussion, highly use of internet as source of information,
and more participation in departmental activities which we created in relation to improve
learning process.

A paper presented at ACPP Yogyakarta, Agustus 2007

The second project, which is started this 2007 was funded by the A3 Competitive Grant also
of the DGHE-MONE but with more money. During this period we proposed to step forward
in revising curriculum and providing teaching grants for lecturers who participate in the
project. Still, participation to switch from conservative to a PBL format has not an obligation
yet. According to the experience of the Faculty of Medicine of our university that has
successfully implemented a PBL throughout the education process, it took more than five
years and costed a lot of money to fully implement a PBL.

Currently, we are trying to develop our own model in applying PBL, since the authentic PBL,
as that used by Faculty of Medicine, can not be wholy implemented in our department for
several reasons. Unlike with human for medical education, plant pathologist must deal with
various kinds of plant. One particular pathogen may cause totally different effects on
different kinds of plant. Besides, plant pathology is only a part of the plant protection
education since it taught together with entomology and other plant pest sciences in the
Department of Plant Pathology and Plant Pest Sciences. Therefore, information, comment,
and suggestion from participants who might be in part or in whole, have any experience in
implementing a PBL format is highly expected.

CONCLUSSION

Due to uncertainty and difficulty faced by our graduates in plant protection, in finding a job,
we have to provide them with an education that can increase their competitiveness. This can
be done through various strategies. Students have to be prepared to be the persons,
mastering not only in plant protection, as their core skill, but also in any kinds of skill. We
believe that a PBL format is a right answer to solve the problems. Using a PBL format, there
are many skills that can be achieved by students beside the skills in plant protection.

REFERENCES

Deslile, R. 1997. How to Use Problem-Based Learning in the Classroom. ASCD Alexandria,
Virginia.
Duch, B.J., S.E. Groh, and D.E. Allen (eds.) 2001. The Power of Problem-Based Learning: A
Practical ‘How To” for Teaching Undergraduate Courses in Any Discipline. Stylus,
Sterling Virginia.
Salvador, R.J., D. W. Countryman, and B. E. Miller. Incorporating Problem-Based Experiential
Teaching in the Agriculture Curriculum. J. Nat. Resour. Life Sci. Educ. 24(1):58-63.
SWAPLUS, 2007. Edition 15th/XIII, 12-25 July 2007.
Wee Keng Neo, L. 2004. Jump Start Authentic Problem-Based Learning. Pearson-Prentice
Hall. Singapore.
Wee Keng Neo, L. and M. Kek Yih Chyn. 2002. Authentic Problem-Based Learning: Rewriting
Business Education. Pearson Education Asia Pte, Ltd. Singapore.
Woods, D.R. 1996. Problem-based Learning: Helping Your Students Gain the Most from PBL.
3rd ed.

A paper presented at ACPP Yogyakarta, Agustus 2007