About PBL

Through problem-based learning, students learn how to use an iterative process of assessing what they know, identifying what they need to know, gathering information, and collaborating on the evaluation of hypotheses in light of the data they have collected. Their teachers act as coaches and tutors: probing findings, hypotheses, and conclusions; sharing their thinking when students need a model; and attending to metacognitive growth by way of “time out” discussions on how thinking is progressing.

These investigations of the connectedness and complexity of real-world problems nurture collaboration among learners, provide instructional tasks appropriately challenging for the targeted students, and promote performance assessments based upon the context of each learning situation.

What Is Problem-Based Learning?

Problem-based learning turns instruction topsy-turvy. Students meet an “ill-structured problem” before they receive any instruction. In the place of covering the curriculum, learners probe deeply into issues searching for connections, grappling with complexity, and using knowledge to fashion solutions. As with real problems, students encountering ill-structured problems will not have most of the relevant information needed to solve the problem at the outset. Nor will they know exactly what actions are required for resolution. After they tackle the problem, the definition of the problem may change. And even after they propose a solution, the students will never be sure they have made the right decision. They will have had the experience of having to make the best possible decision based on the information at hand.

They will also have had a stake in the problem. In problem-based learning students assume the roles of scientists, historians, doctors, or others who have a real stake in the proposed problem. Motivation soars because students realize it's their problem. By having a stake, they come to realize that no real-world problem is objective, that every point of view comes with a bias toward interpreting data in a certain way.

Teachers take on new roles in problem-based learning, too. First they act as models, thinking aloud with students and practicing behavior they want their students to use. They familiarize students with metacognitive questions such as, What's going on here? What do we need to know more about? What did we do during the problem that was effective? Then they coax and prompt students to use the questions and take on the responsibility for the problem. As time goes on, students become self-directed learners. To encourage the students' independence, the teachers then fade into the background and assume the role of colleagues on the problem-solving team.

In the process of problem solving, students crisscross a variety of disciplines. They build substantial knowledge bases through increasingly self-directed study. Through collaboration with their classmates, students refine and enlarge what they know, storing their new knowledge in long-term memory in such a way to promote transfer to new problems. As they move toward solutions, they identify conflicting ethical appeals. And when it is time for resolution, they present, justify, and debate solutions, looking for the “best fit.” Problem-based learning is apprenticeship for real-life problem solving.

Assessment during PBL units takes place through the use of periodic exercises collected as a problem log. The exercises are designed to sample student thinking at different stages and to check on skill development related to information gathering, analysis, and evaluation.

Source: Stepien, W. & Gallagher, S., Problem-based Learning: As Authentic As It Gets, Educational Leadership

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