Planning and Resources

Problem-Based Learning

What Is Problem-Based Learning?

Problem-based learning is an instructional approach that uses"real-world" problems to help students learn both critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It also helps them to acquire a core understanding of the concepts of the course that you teach. Problem-based learning has many benefits. It enables students to acquire "real-world" skills that will make them lifelong problem solvers and helps them to become self-directed learners.

In problem-based learning, students work together, generally in small groups, to study the issues of a viable problem that they are trying to solve. The problem should not be situation specific with well-defined parameters that lead to only one correct answer. Instead, the problem should be a real-life problem that presents a variety of goals, contexts, obstacles, and unknowns that constantly change—the type of problem that occurs in everyday life or in a particular profession.

Your role in problem-based learning is different from what you do when you lecture. In problem-based learning, you act as a guide or facilitator, supporting students' initiatives and encouraging student participation. When you lecture, you're the expert. With problem-based learning, you become a fellow learner with your students.

Developing a Problem-Based Learning Unit

Problem-based learning units are a great way to engage students in learning. As a teacher, you have myriad ideas and materials that can help you design an effective problem-based learning unit. Here are some tips to help you:

• Determine what the context for the problem is. Do you want students to design an experiment, understand a difficult topic, or communicate a message to others? Generate several skills-based outcomes.
• List students' specific qualities or characteristics. For instance, they may be self-conscious about trying new things, or they may question authority. Keep these characteristics in mind when you are developing your unit.
• Look over your teaching materials. Make a list of some complex issues, conflicts, or decisions that you've discussed in class. Try to find materials that address a real-world application in some way. For example, you may have discussed recycling and the environment or how the Vietnam War affects our relationship with Vietnam today.
• Choose a basic problem from your list that is relevant and interesting to your students. Write some notes about the issues surrounding the problem. Do some preliminary research to be sure that students will be able to find enough information about the topic.
• Develop an interesting focus for the problem you have chosen. For example, would it be interesting for students to examine a recycling issue if they were environmentalists, state senators, or executives running a profitable plastics company? Select the role that seems most effective and map out what issues the students would need to consider from that viewpoint.
• Use your notes and define, in detail, the problem and the role that students will take in trying to solve the problem. Make sure that you include a conclusion to the problem by which outcomes can be measured. For example: You are a state senator who wants to get reelected in six months. A profitable plastics company in the state in which you're trying to get reelected has made no moves to encourage recycling or to create degradable plastics. The company employs over 3,000 citizens in your state. The company has recently been getting negative press, and you have received many calls from citizens asking that the company be made to either close or become more committed to recycling. The town in which the company is located has a landfill that is nearly filled, and subsequently, the real estate prices in that town are declining. You are expected to speak before the Senate and make a recommendation as to what the company should do and whether the government should get involved.
• Create some props for the problem. You could create "official" documents, company earnings statements, etc.
• Pare down the problem and present the issues students should consider when trying to solve the problem. For example: Should group recommend that the government intervene and demand that the plastics company change, considering the jobs of the employees, the revenue to the state, the benefits of recycling, the damage to real estate value, my reelection, etc.

Assessment and Problem-Based Learning

It is important to assess students as they work through their problem-based learning project. There are a variety of ways that you can do this. Most problem-based learning units are completed in groups, but it is important to assess students both individually and as a group. Before students begin the unit, tell them how they are going to be assessed, and share any rubrics that you have developed. Be sure to assess the students' development of "real-world" skills, such as their collaboration skills, their ability to solve problems, and their ability to give presentations.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when you are assessing students:

• Assess students as if they were professionals in the field and you were their supervisor. This supports the "real-world" context. Students realize that their situation is one that real professionals encounter in society.
• Assess students in the same way that the problem-based instruction was structured. In other words, if you ask students to create a model building, then you should not give them a multiple choice test. Rather, you might evaluate them as an architect or a building inspector.
• Provide students with reasonable guidelines and expectations. Most real-world problems can be solved in many different ways. Share your expectations with students before they begin the unit, and give general assessment guidelines that allow for a variety of approaches instead of specific guidelines that must be precisely followed.
• Do not wait to assess students at the end of the unit or activity. Instead, model real-world behavior and assess students throughout the activity or unit.

Links

Problem-Based Learning in History/Social Science
Contains links to history and social science problem-based learning activities for middle and high school students.

"Dan Tries Problem-Based Learning: A Case Study"
This article briefly discusses problem-based learning and features a case study done by a professor.

"Disadvantages of Problem-Based Learning"
This article touches upon some of the disadvantages of problem-based learning.

Resources

PBL Overview. MCLI. 12/8/00. <http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/pbl/info.html>

What is Problem-Based Learning? IMSA Center for Problem-Based Learning. 11/13/00 <http://www.imsa.edu/team/cpbl/problem.html>