V. Chapter 4: What is our model for Problem-based Learning?

a. It is the job of the teacher/coach to push learners to keep stripping away the layers of the onion so that the learners are not comfortable with just simplistic problem statements.

b. PBL is a model composed of two complementary processes that go hand in hand:

i. Curriculum Organization

ii. Instructional Strategy: This follows an instructional template for a PBL unit that involves the teacher as coach:

1. Prepares the Learners

2. Helps students Meet the Problem

3. Engaging students in an interative process wherein students

a. Identify What they know, what they need to know, and their ideas

b. Define the problem statement

c. Gather and share information

4. Then generate possible solutions

5. Determine the best fit of solutions

6. Present the solution (performance assessment)

7. and finally, debrief the problem.

c. One area to avoid when preparing students is teaching the content of the problem before starting. Students learn the content and skills in the course of solving the problem.

d. Meeting the Problem: the goal of this is to support learners as they develop a personal stake in the problem; motivate them to want to solve it.

i. Design meeting the problem in a number of ways to engage or hook students. One way that our partner teachers and we often use is to give students an authentic-looking letter or document that describe their role in the problem. The document introduces the problem briefly and gives enough detail so that students can make an initial attempt at defining it.

ii. You can use any of the following:

1. Dramatic skits

2. Person to engage the students

3. Video clip

4. newspaper article

5. notice from a public agency

6. phone message recording

7. radio or tv

e. Identifying What we Know, What We Need to Know, and Our Ideas

i. Goals include:

1. Supporting learners in developing an awareness of what they know and need to know and what ideas they have about the problem.

2. Activate learners’ prior knowledge about the problem.

3. Provide focus for preparing to gather information needed to solve the problem.

ii. Teachers coach students to probe the knowledge they have from meeting the problem as well as from their experiences. Students document this information on a “know” chart or document. The “need to knows” are issues the students believe are critical to finding out more about the problem; students record this information also. The “need to knows” typically drive students’ initial information-gathering efforts.

f. Defining the Problem-Statement

i. Goals include:

1. Supporting learners in

a. Stating the overriding issue or problem in the circumstances they have encountered, and

b. Identifying a subset of conflicting conditions that a good solution must serve.

2. Conditions that contribute to a viable solution often conflict.

3. Learners may also map the problem as they understand more about it and develop hunches about the potential causes, solutions, and consequences.

ii. Two situations for which teachers should prepare themselves are students having difficulty locating any information, or finding such an abundance of information, much of it irrelevant, that they may initially struggle.

iii. After several PBL experiences, teachers learn how to coach students through these difficulties and students learn to assess themselves and their groups on how well they are gathering and sharing information.

g. Generating Possible Solutions

i. Goal includes: Supporting learners in articulating the full range of possible options for addressing the problem they have defined.

ii. One useful tool for organizing the possible solutions is a decision-making matrix.

h. Determining the Solutions that Fit Best

i. Goal includes supporting learners in using the benchmarks of good thinking to evaluate the benefits and consequences of each solution.

ii. The students’ goal is to create the most acceptable set of outcomes in response to the conditions specified in the problem statement.

iii. Skillful, responsible thinking comes about from good judgment supported by criteria, context, self-correction, and explicit reasons for drawing a conclusion.

iv. Presenting the Solution (Performance Assessment)

1. Goals include supporting learners in effectively articulating and demonstrating what they know, how they know it, and why and for whom knowing is important.

2. Assessing this culminating performance is usually conducted using a detailed rubric on content, presentation skills, teamwork, and fit of solution.

3. Benefits of this performance include:

a. Learners hear another group giving details or reasons they had not considered, or offering incorrect information.

b. Panel members may ask questions for which students may not be prepared in initial PBL experiences.

c. Through challenges, students learn how to present more thoroughly thought-out and well-supported solutions.

v. Debriefing the Problem

1. Goals include learners reflecting together on what they have learned and to place new learning within a cognitive framework of knowing.

2. Cognitive and metacognitive strategies—thinking and thinking about our own learning—are important not only for adhering to benchmarks of good thinking but also for providing a sense of completion to learners who have become personally invested in the problem.

3. Students need a realistic awareness of the effect their recommended solutions will have in resolving the problem.

vi. Students construct knowledge revolving around a relevant problematic situation in a rigorous, thoughtful, connected way.

vii. PBL exemplifies a constructivist model for education, which serves to best prepare our students for life now and in the future.