Problem Based Learning

Problem-based-learning (PBL) allows students the opportunity to brainstorm, research, and investigate a real world problem that has several different solutions. Since the answer is not handed to the students, their learning becomes active. They need to discover and work with the ideas that are presented in class and combined it with the research they do on their own as well as with classmates. During these lessons, the students start to make important decisions as they sift through all the available information to discover the critical information regarding the problem that is at hand.

There are many main elements to PBL. First, the students must have the responsibility for learning the information. The teacher’s role is to guide, not answer. The scenario needs to be loosely structured to allow the students to really investigate the problem and should involve a wide range of disciplines. The students should have opportunities to work on their own and with their peers. The research they collect needs to be applied back to the problem, stimulating further questioning and clarification of the scenario to continue the learning process. At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to state what they learned and how they got there, as well as complete self and peer assessments.

While watching “Beginning the journey Five-year-olds drive their own PBL projects,” I really enjoyed watching the students' research, brainstorm, create, and role-play. I kept thinking that I wish that I could have experienced just ONE teacher that modeled PBL. The students were energized because the projects are based off of natural curiosity, everyday situations or their personal stories. When you are learning about things that you experience or see, interest comes very natural. The students seemed to remain engaged throughout the lesson because the teachers don’t answer their questions; they rephrase it and give it right back to the students to figure out.

Technology is one of the major steps in this journey of lifelong learning. PBL units show the importance of building our students to become resourceful, problem solvers. They will need to use technology to examine and try out what they know as well as discover what they will need to learn. We are not going to be there for our students in the future but the information we share with them and the experiences they have in our classes will.