Perspective Chapter: A Systematic Study for Model Management Education toward Problem Based Learning in West Africa

Abstract

Globalization complicates West African higher education. Problem-based learning (PBL) works in many developed nations. Scholars comprehend determination difficulties better than content or thinking. Scholars work together to find the solution. Problem-based learning describes how unprofessional management students achieve these goals. West African samples were surveyed. Students, teachers, founders, and others were interviewed, read, and given questionnaires to assess their awareness, challenges, and future of PBL in higher education, particularly business schools. PBL implementation is hindered by colonized curriculum, no access limit, insufficient research funds and infrastructure investments, resource shortages, inexperienced faculty, and curricular concerns, according to data analysis. West African management education is still developing, requiring a diverse, cutting-edge approach. PBL requires community members and dedicated, trained staff. Global competitiveness seems unavoidable. West Africa will lag if it does not. Thus, the study begins the process of understanding and resolving challenges.

1. Introduction

Back in the 1960s, at McMaster University in Hamilton, Barrows and Tamblyn developed the problem-based learning (PBL) technique to engage students in future ramifications. PBL is presently employed in subjects like education, mathematics, law, social studies, economics, management, engineering, and related fields [1]. The century’s biggest shift in higher education is problem-solving skills [2]. Previously, evaluating PBL progress was difficult. Several African colleges and universities have recently implemented PBL into their curricula with good results [3]. Its benefits and the ever-changing higher education landscape attract many schools, particularly those with low resources [4]. Using problem-based learning encourages students to be more reflective and cooperative [5]. Most institutions and faculties have implemented Problem-Based Learning (PBL) to make their programmes more student-centered, diverse, and professional [6].

West African countries include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo [7]. University of Cape Coast and University of Development Studies are two African universities that have implemented PBL [8]. No West African business schools or management colleges have published PBL literature, save Ghana.

A PBL in West African business schools requires some key features.

2. Problem-based learning (PBL)

Theory understands by reversing techniques [9]. They develop top-level skills including identifying and reflecting on de facto practises while mastering self-study [3]. This type of learning focuses on significant topics and investigates them [10, 11]. PBL supports immersion, scholar-focused learning, independence and navel-gazing [12]. Study environment, learner personality, and education are possible difficulties [13]. Flexible, reflective, and evaluative. Achieving these goals will help instil attributes like collaboration and sellability [4].

Problem Based Learning courses have eight components:

1. Accepting life lessons as a foundation

2. Emphasis on graduates owning their education

3. A point where two directions converge

4. Theoretical and practical interweaving

5. A concentration on knowledge acquisition processes rather than goods

6. A shift from instructor to facilitator in staff roles

7. Students’ self- and peer assessment replaces teacher evaluation of learning outcomes.

8. Communication and interpersonal abilities

A combination of the following variants is used by Barrows in his taxonomy [9]:

1. Cases for lectures

2. Case-study lectures

3. Modified Case technique

4. Closed-loop problem-based

Based on this definition, Savin-Baden [13] distinguishes problem-based learning from other techniques in three ways:

1. Incorporated programmes that focus on cognitive abilities and problem-solving

2. A small group setting, tutorials, and active learning promote problem based learning.

3. In addition, PBL promotes lifetime learning skills and motivation.

3. West African PBL: challenges

The biggest issue facing West African universities and institutions is funding. For many years, West African colleges and business schools have neglected management education. Despite faculty, teaching, and resource shortages, accreditation committees have accepted new schools and colleges. Free Senior High Schools are now available in Ghana and Nigeria, increasing post-secondary enrolment. Conversations in Africa’s business schools/management departments have begun on open education, the British syllabi. Encountering adversity, Higher Education in West Africa is suffering [14]. Most West African countries grew rapidly in the last decade. Senegal’s primary school enrolment is 79%. (WB) Across Africa, girls outnumber boys in school [15]. Several West African Universities/Colleges have only partially recovered from their crisis due to shrinking funds and rising enrollments. In West African institutions, donor-funded courses and foreign professors have plummeted. Less strain is on management education than science and technology [16].

Increasing enrolments have resulted in no entry limits. The outcome is a lack of equality and low entry qualifications in West African institutions. In West African business/management schools, the curriculum matters. West African universities prioritize profit over values. The result is a lack of creativity and joblessness. Now they need work. West Africa has a service economy. Few industries need capital. Due to a lack of government jobs, students must be self-employed so unemployment rose.

Decolonization and curriculum re-defining and re-adjusting for an African context were important difficulties that West African colleges faced early on (with mixed results). Positive responses to African social issues were required. Moving away from Eurocentric and US centric perspectives of education, knowledge, and curriculum designed by and for Africans is required [17].

West African countries have a severe dilemma as they move from passive data collection to active data use.

Traditional academic fields’ analytical practices are replaced with answers to complicated problems in the new paradigm of knowledge generation [18]. Inability to tackle the challenge may also cause a shift in knowledge production methods. Developing and transition nations risk increased marginalization due to inadequate post-secondary education systems [18].

Poor research funding and infrastructure investments have plagued several universities. Former intellectual and research powerhouses are suffering. Many governments believe their tax base is too small to fund a free higher education system, while detractors argue that money earned should be used to fight corruption and excessive public sector pay. Education is becoming more elitist rather than more accessible [19]. Lessons may be difficult. Surpasses the median family income. When it comes to financial aid, “there is a group trapped in the middle” that neither qualifies nor can afford it.

West African students may struggle to juggle schoolwork. Education is hampered by budget cuts. Employee strikes are prevalent in West Africa, delaying graduation by years. West African graduates are leaving for better paying opportunities elsewhere [20]. Workforce education has become an affluent club. Costs are outpacing salaries. They lacked suitable wage guidelines for college members.

Education is regularly straining to meet excessive teaching demands, including extensive undergraduate classrooms with administrative pressure, according to former Association of African Universities (AAU) Secretary-General Goolam Mohamedbhai [21]. West African universities are facing increased workloads and less research funding. Across the country, public universities are opening remote learning centres for business programmes. This affects enrolment and sustainability. Boko Haram terrorizes Nigerian higher education [22]. Graduation is a major issue for most colleges The key difficulties in West Africa today are finance, resources, and colonial curricula. Employers need graduates and understudies who can use data to make decisions. Competent guidance is perceived as sharp. This may be thought of it. Milgrom advocates utilizing a socio-constructivist method to define goals, prerequisites, and needs for new educational modules [23]. “Learning by doing in small groups” is part of his dynamic self-guided self-evaluated task and issue-based picking up paradigm. The basic concept of this methodology is to teach pupils new abilities. The aim is to show PBL pieces in the places below.

3.1 Defeating PBL approach obstacles in west

It was previously reported that establishing problem-based learning at West African Management Schools is tough. We will also look at solutions.

An examination of typical management college teaching approaches revealed deficiencies. Increasingly, university teachers are accused of harassing pupils, reports BBC-Africa [24]. There is a sex or money issue in several West African universities. Inequalities, sexism, and even rape are important concerns that female students face globally [19]. Fear mongering, backlogs, and harassment were overused. Aiming to prevent slow learners and repeat offenders [25], Creating terrified, passive students. These people memorized concepts and beliefs they could not challenge. In West Africa, modern education pedagogy tended to eliminate initiative, innovation, and enterprise. One approach is to use PBL to teach African real-life problems rather than textbook problems. Students in a PBL curriculum use local, contextualized indigenous business and management expertise to better their learning processes (Information and communications technology).

1. Mass education and Free Senior High School policy: Most West African countries are service-oriented. Manufacturing firms are rare. So it’s a service economy. Students prefer business schools. Sadly, there are many universities that now offer business and management degrees. Due to high enrolment and the free Senior High School programme, quality instructors and support staff are rare due to high demand. Only peer learning will do here. Mass education in West Africa necessitates efficient learning. Students help other students transform by teaching them. The only option is to teach pupils problem-solving skills through problem-based learning.

2. Poor entry qualifications and inequities: Peer learning and other non-academic skills can help ‘poor’ pupils perform better. This results in better learning outcomes for non-academic students, and higher completion rates for business studies.

3. Lack of innovation capacity and unemployment: A diverse workforce improves innovative potential, says the Danish Agency for Science, Technology, and Innovation [26]. Africa’s Universities and Colleges Must Innovate. To Save West African business schools lack creativity. To summarize, the National Innovation System is lacking in patents, B-school copyrights, and university management departments. Techno-management is a rare specialty. Few engineers studied business. Most MBA students are slackers who simply read cheap handouts. This creates a skills deficit. PBL fosters creativity in graduates. Educators foster critical thinking and problem-solving. This broadens the disciplinary knowledge base. This implies creating business-relevant knowledge at universities. Only then can a grad find work.

4. Lack of resources: A PBL system is ideal when the university lacks resources. West African institutions suffer severe faculty, infrastructure, and financial issues. High enrolment and low resources plague many business schools. PBL is the only effective solution here. Peer-to-peer training may decrease wasteful costs and worker workloads. So it saves teaching and exam time. Improving trans disciplinary management research.

5. Lack of IT skills: Many universities lacked IT expertise. They do not have the IT know-how to create a Online or off, PBL may help.

6. De-colonization: By addressing local issues rather than textbooks, it also helps build Africanized knowledge. One answer is to decolonize Business Schools.

7. Changing perspectives: To learn to learn, transform information into new knowledge, and apply new knowledge to real-life problem-solving scenarios is stated in the World Bank report [18]. Incorporating PBL in West African colleges may assist build the African “niche” of knowledge in the global knowledge economy.

4. Summary

When teaching with PBL, students may work on problems derived from faculty members’ own problem-based research. It introduces students to research at a young age. PBL in the first years of university education will thus improve student research skills sooner rather than later. Researchers may become new university employees [17]. The University for Development Studies (UDS) in Ghana uses a PBL curriculum, but the challenges are unknown [8]. PBL is rare in Africa.

Management schools must improve undergraduate and graduate business education to better engage students. Medical and health science education has never been more innovative [27]. Enhancement of higher-order thinking and problem-solving is most important [28, 29]. Active and student-centered teaching strategies help students apply their knowledge and skills in new situations [30]. PBL usually occurs after a problem is resolved. Throughout the learning cycle, teachers assist students.

5. Recommendations

The PBL is recognized as a professional curriculum that prepares graduates for the job market in these nations. Some of the PBL aspects mentioned here include learning context and learning relationships. Personal, pedagogical, and interactional perspectives are included as well. An independent thinker/learner who can draw on previous experience, interaction with one or more people, and nature to build knowledge. I’m a student for the rest of my life. Given the system’s inherent difficulties, these countries must be globally competitive and implement effective strategies with limited resources. The fundamental issue with private colleges is a scarcity of qualified staff, as well as a lack of adequate salaries and technological resources.

6. A futuristic strategy

Higher education in West Africa has become more complicated as a result of globalization. Finance and infrastructure are both in short supply. Using PBL tactics necessitates the involvement of community members as well as dedicated, committed, and qualified personnel. For global competitiveness, there appears to be no other feasible option. Unless West Africa follows suit, it will be left behind. Here are some ideas to help you get out of this funk:

• Create and develop nation-building higher education to produce nationalists.

• Define market- and societal-driven national, regional, and institutional strategies.

• Full autonomy for all institutions

• To realign the curriculum toward PBL, a balanced staff-student ratio, scheduled work and evaluation, and a minimum of 50 hours per week for staff are all necessary. Make proportional paid leave a reality. No traditional exams, but ongoing planned assessment; one tutor (teacher) in charge of a group for the duration of the semester for all topics; staff should be more active in research/consultancy work to produce 20% of their compensation; deploy need-based faculty training, and so on.

• All students receive free tuition and housing (residential institutions).

• Institutions are funded by equity shares and bank loans; employed graduates pay their parent institution(s) 2.5 percent of their income; Accept public donations; 20% staff contribution via research and development, etc. Industries that are exempt from paying income tax should pay a 1% profit tax to local institutions, and so on.