The P.R.O.B.E.© Learning Journal: A Bridge from Classroom Learning into a Student’s Life
By Dr. Michael J. Stacey, Central Michigan University, and Professor Robert M. Halliday, Quinnipiac University

The P.R.O.B.E.© Learning Journal is a three-part journal that students can use to process their experiences. The journaling process can be applied either in the classroom or in their home environment. Both authors have utilized the journal with their students.  Professor Stacey uses the journal with his education and interpersonal competence classes and Professor Halliday with groups in his team development and organizational development classes (Halliday, Luoma, & Cadden, 2007). What follows is a review of the P.R.O.B.E.© learning model, the journal’s content sections as well as the authors’ practical experiences with these approaches.

The P.R.O.B.E.© learning model integrates the student, the learning contract and the journal.  The model emphasizes the blending of goal setting, planning, assessment, experience, intellectual and emotional reflection, problem/opportunity focus, conceptual applications and resultant action initiatives.  The authors have had tremendous success applying the model in undergraduate and graduate university courses. 

The journal begins, in the case of an interpersonal skill oriented course, with a learning contract where students set a clear skill goal and smaller objectives they want to accomplish in the context of the assigned course.  A goal based action plan of key skill development activities and behaviors are delineated to encourage goal achievements.  Provisions are made for monitoring the student’s own skill practices and progress, measures for goal achievement and a final evaluation procedure to estimate growth and development.  The journal itself is perhaps the key set of activities for assuring success of the learning project’s goals. 

Next, the journal focuses on the student’s experience (what happened, who said what to whom, their ideas and emotions during the time of the experience, the interaction environment and the task at hand). Its structure invites the student to describe concretely key, recent experiences in a very specific manner.  The second phase of the journal begins with a specific focus on a defined problem or opportunity for growth.  It could, for example, deal with a key aspect of an interpersonal skill that the student is working on.  Then, related concepts are applied to the student’s experience (his or her own skill related behaviors) to gain some insight and understanding.  These concepts will also offer advice on how to improve the student’s effectiveness (improve his or her skill initiatives).  Lastly the journal entry concludes with a behavioral action plan to actually test out what the student learned within another interactive experience. 

The authors suggest using a learning worksheet as a tool to give faculty practice with developing a skill goal. The worksheet asks faculty to write one skill that they want to perfect in their teaching. Faculty should then revise their worksheets in behavioral terms since most do not initially describe their skills in terms of actual behaviors.  The worksheet should then be reviewed in light of the P.R.O.B.E.© model, the journal learning contract and experiential processing steps.  (You may contact the authors to get a copy of this worksheet.)

The learning power of the P.R.O.B.E.© journal process is embedded within the synergy created by students blending their emerging experiential self-awareness, their emotional, cognitive and theoretical insights verified through actual change of behavior within real interactive environments. 

A Few Tips and Offerings to Help Implement the P.R.O.B.E.© journal: 

• Increasing one’s non-judgmental observations and descriptions opens up possibilities.
• Experiential, behavioral details are often ignored in higher education classrooms.
• Concepts are for more than recall --- undergraduate and graduate students can apply and analyze explicitly utilizing relevant concepts.
• Personalization of learning (cognitive, emotional and behavioral) is craved by most learners to make sense out of the university experience.
• The integration of the learning tools built into the P.R.O.B.E.© model are intrinsically empowering.
• Increasing student self-directed motivation is more than possible, it’s probable within the appropriate class organization culture.
• Course learning outcomes explode when students take increasing responsibility for their own learning!
• Expect more because they can and deep down want to!
• Faculty journal entries enrich the course learnings for students and faculty.
• Along the way, negotiating and re-negotiating “expectations” for deeper levels of motivation expands personal and professional growth possibilities.

Dr. Stacey from Central Michigan University and Professor Halliday from Quinnipiac University gave a presentation on the P.R.O.B.E.© Journal at the 2007 Lilly North conference.  Questions can be directed to Dr. Michael Stacey (stace1mj@cmich.edu).

Halliday, R., Luoma, P., & Cadden, D.  (2007).  Star Team Consultants© - Undergraduate Team Builders.  Journal of Global Business, 18(36), 73-86.