PBL: More Initial Questions
Questions I must consider...
Problem-based learning (PBL) is the use of real-word problems as a vehicle to bringing "content" to students in the classroom. It has it's origin in medical training. Howard Barrows pioneered this method with his students as a way of getting them to exercise their clinical skills of reasoning and investigating. The process starts with what is known and progresses from there.
PBL could find its way into my classroom in a number of ways. In fact, it might already be there. In my Composition II course, last year, I ran a research project that I entitled "Knowledge Quest." At the time, I had no working knowledge of PBL, but as I said before, my commitment to methods that involve student-centered learning, high-degrees of collaboration, and views of knowledge as something socially-constructed and negotiated seems to place me not far from PBL proper. In the "Knowledge Quest," teams of students define broad, topical questions around a broad subject area. I used art. So, as a class, we went through a process that yielded topical questions (as opposed to factual or interpretive questions) like "Why are human beings obsessed with creating and consuming art?", "What is the role of art in a troubled world?", "Who determines the purpose and value of art and how is that determined?", "How does art shape public policy?", "Does the artist have a responsibility to his community?", and so forth. This was the starting point. Each team (or quest) had a different question which drove them forward in their research. They had to consult many different kinds of sources, both primary and secondary, as the pursued answers to their driving quest/tion. It ended up being a pretty good project, I think. While it is not pure PBL, I think it could be easily tweaked to take advantage more fully of the PBL framework.
I'm not exactly sure what kinds of changes I would have to make to more fully utilize PBL with this Knowledge Quest project. Perhaps, as it stands now, the KQ project is more project-based learning than problem-based. As I reflect back on it, the basic products resulting in the end were very similar. In a real PBL class, the products would all be very different depending on the very different solutions the students came up with for their defined problem. Perhaps, to make the KQ project more PBL, I need to hand more over to the students, allowing them to define their own projects more so.
Given the diversity of learners in my classes, PBL could be of great benefit to learners, as they could pursue solutions to their defined problems in ways that fit their individual learning styles.
- What is PBL?
- What might PBL look like in your classroom?
- What changes would you have to make?
- How would the wide variety of learners in your classroom benefit from PBL?
Problem-based learning (PBL) is the use of real-word problems as a vehicle to bringing "content" to students in the classroom. It has it's origin in medical training. Howard Barrows pioneered this method with his students as a way of getting them to exercise their clinical skills of reasoning and investigating. The process starts with what is known and progresses from there.
PBL could find its way into my classroom in a number of ways. In fact, it might already be there. In my Composition II course, last year, I ran a research project that I entitled "Knowledge Quest." At the time, I had no working knowledge of PBL, but as I said before, my commitment to methods that involve student-centered learning, high-degrees of collaboration, and views of knowledge as something socially-constructed and negotiated seems to place me not far from PBL proper. In the "Knowledge Quest," teams of students define broad, topical questions around a broad subject area. I used art. So, as a class, we went through a process that yielded topical questions (as opposed to factual or interpretive questions) like "Why are human beings obsessed with creating and consuming art?", "What is the role of art in a troubled world?", "Who determines the purpose and value of art and how is that determined?", "How does art shape public policy?", "Does the artist have a responsibility to his community?", and so forth. This was the starting point. Each team (or quest) had a different question which drove them forward in their research. They had to consult many different kinds of sources, both primary and secondary, as the pursued answers to their driving quest/tion. It ended up being a pretty good project, I think. While it is not pure PBL, I think it could be easily tweaked to take advantage more fully of the PBL framework.
I'm not exactly sure what kinds of changes I would have to make to more fully utilize PBL with this Knowledge Quest project. Perhaps, as it stands now, the KQ project is more project-based learning than problem-based. As I reflect back on it, the basic products resulting in the end were very similar. In a real PBL class, the products would all be very different depending on the very different solutions the students came up with for their defined problem. Perhaps, to make the KQ project more PBL, I need to hand more over to the students, allowing them to define their own projects more so.
Given the diversity of learners in my classes, PBL could be of great benefit to learners, as they could pursue solutions to their defined problems in ways that fit their individual learning styles.
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