Skip to main content

Problem Based Learning

When I first thought of problem-based learning(PrBL) students need to solve a real-world problem. I thought about the innovation challenges where students are designing items to solve a need for a community or person. I thought about design thinking workshops where students engineered a plan to fix the cafeteria seating. I think about the Anatomy and Physiology class where students are solving case studies (Punahou, 2011). I thought about my own class Design of Emerging Technology (DET) where some students design a project to solve an issue they see (mail sensor, sensors for low stock items, light that changes based on heart rate). These are all real-world problems and fall under the umbrella of Project-based learning in my mind. In fact, some of my students in DET would create art installations and be more project-based. Then I read Krall’s (2012b) statement “we need to define what is an “authentic mathematical experience”. A mathematical experience to me is something that promotes mathematical habits of mind.” This got my mind thinking about the best math lessons I have taught and how some of my former math colleagues teach mathematics. 

I look back on the last few years of my teaching mathematics. Often we would grapple with a problem and figure out how to solve that problem. This could take a day or two to determine. Students would learn via discovery and build their critical thinking skills. I agree with Krall (2012b) “lectures suck”. The more that teachers can act as facilitators and allow students to explore their mathematical concepts, the more critical thinking students develop. I love understanding the importance of stripping away the made-up scenarios and actually looking at some good math problems (Krall, 2012b). This was always a challenge for me, I hated making up problems that were not real. I think that this is why I liked teaching Statistics. I could easily develop problems that they could look at that are about real life and enhanced my students' mathematical minds. 

Krall’s edgier brownie pan lesson (2012a) demonstrates a great inquiry-based lesson. The problem is based on a real-life situation, “Can we make an edgier pan or a pan for people who like only centers?” Students first have to decide a metric for “edginess” (Krall, 2012a). This is having them develop some mathematical arguments for this metric as well. I have always struggled at the high school level with how to balance the content of mathematics (such as Pre-Calculus) through PBL. A PrBL approach allows the content and a way to help students develop independence, inquiry, and the four C’s (Larmer, 2014). 

When I think about PBL, PrBL, and STEM, I realize there are many ways that critical thinking is developed in classrooms. The NGSS provides a guideline for STEM teachers to develop the practices, content, and relationship to other STEM disciplines. PBL  allows for the multi-disciplinary approach that allows teachers to pull from other subjects such as English, Reading, and History. I can see how the approaches for inquiry-based take time, being able to touch on many concepts would assist in the lack of time teachers always mention. I think of my own daughter’s 2nd grade Komodo Dragon book. The teacher developed expository writing while researching reptiles and writing about their life cycles. This simple project gave my daughter a chance to do science, writing, reading, research, and art. It touched on many of the standards and provided them with more learning than just spending x amount of minutes in each of these subjects. I think that when we begin to combine STEM with units developed through PBL students begin to engineer and discover more about the world around them. They start to become inquiry-based learners. They begin to question the world around them and look for supporting valid evidence to support their own reasoning and thinking. 

References 

Krall, G. (2012, January 7). Can we make an even "edgier" brownie pan? What about the "perfect" brownie pan? Emergent Math. https://emergentmath.com/2012/01/07/can-we-make-an-even-edgier-brownie-pan-what-about-the-perfect-brownie-pan/

Krall, G. (2012, May 24). Isn't problem-based learning easier than project-based learning and 10 other myths about PrBL. ("Real or not real"). Emergent Math. https://emergentmath.com/2012/05/24/isnt-problem-based-learning-easier-than-project-based-learning-and-10-other-myths-about-prbl-real-or-not-real/ 

Larmer, J. (2014, January 4). Project-based learning vs problem-based learning vs X-BL. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/pbl-vs-pbl-vs-xbl-john-larmer 

Punahou School. (2011, August 22). Problem-based learning [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J63e_YSntuo 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Project Based Learning: Gold Standards

  PBLWorks  is the gold standard for Project Based Learning(PBL).  They provide many resources for teachers wishing to adopt PBL into their curriculum.  PBL is different from just completing a project; the goal of the PBL is to provide a rigorous learning environment where the student learning goals are centered but and students learn to solve problems by answering complex questions and creating high-quality work (Larmer, 2020). PBL the learning goals are surrounded into the project.  According to PBLWorks and Larmer (2020) there are six essential elements of project design: Challenge Problem or Question Sustained Inquiry Authenticity Student Voice and Choice Reflection Critique and Revision Public Product Not all projects meet these standards, the following three videos from Edutopia show an array of projects that all engage the students in some manner.  The projects demonstrated clearly showed sustain inquiry, student choice, and authenticity. The role of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Inquiry based Research Update: DATA DATA DATA

 It's been two weeks since I posted about learning about action research.  I have decided on a question based upon not being in a classroom currently and reflecting upon weaknesses of my teaching CS.  I felt I would love to learn more about teaching cybersecurity.  I don't have enough knowledge to do this well, and I always fumble.  I also think that students need to understand the fields that can be involved in cybersecurity and that it is not just about hacking.   When I have students complete GoCyberStart, I know I am no help.  I have even struggled to complete them.  I need to get better at this, now is the time.   My research question is: How do I design an inquiry-based unit on cybersecurity for students to understand the impacts on their lives? This will provide me with a chance to determine what is essential for students to know about cybersecurity, learn more about cybersecurity, and an opportunity for action research as a ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Inquiry Based Research

  My next set of classes has started.  We are reading The Reflective Educator’s Guide to Classroom Research in one class, and Chapter 1 mentions starting an inquiry journal.  The book is about doing inquiry-based research or active research in your classroom.  It discusses the importance of intentionally writing down the observations of the class (Dana and Yendol-Hoppey, 2020).  This makes sense, given that you have a lab, research, engineering notebook that needs to be done if you are doing scientific research.  These are taken seriously as the documentation.  I think teachers should be doing this as well.  I thought this would be a great place to my inquiry journal and record my thoughts.  My hope of learning about inquiry-based research is to do more research in my classroom.  I want to use data in my classroom to drive my teaching methodologies and maybe publish (One of these days, I will write about how much I fear writing)....
Post a Comment
Read more