Problem-Based Learning (pbl) What it is, Principles, and Examples

What does PBL do?

• What does PBL do?
• PBL simultaneously develops problem solving ` strategies, disciplinary knowledge bases, and skills.
• How does PBL do it?
• By placing students in the active role of problem solvers confronted with a (purposefully) ill-structured problem which mirrors real-world problems.

Problem-based learning has as its organizing center the ill-structured problem which...

• is messy and complex in nature
• requires inquiry, information-gathering, and reflection
• is changing and tentative
• has no simple, fixed, formulaic, "right" solution

PBL Consists of Two Complementary Inter-related Processes

• PBL Consists of Two Complementary Inter-related Processes
• Curriculum Design
• Teachers design an ill-structured problem based on desired curriculum outcomes, learner characteristics, and compelling, problematic situations from the real world
• Teachers develop a sketch or template of teaching and learning events in anticipation of students' learning needs
• Teachers investigate the range of resources essential to the problem and arrange for their availability
• Cognitive Coaching
• Students actively define problems and construct potential solutions
• Teachers model, coach, and fade in supporting and making explicit students' learning processes

• http://www.udel.edu/pbl/

• Resources for Problem-Based Learning

• University of Delaware

• The Power of Problem-Based Learning, A Practical "How To" For Teaching Undergraduate Courses in Any Discipline, edited by Barbara Duch, Susan Gron, and Deborah Allen, Stylus Publishing, LLC (2001), 256 pages

• San Diego State University, The Learning Tree
• http://edweb.sdsu.edu/clrit/learningtree/PBL/WhatisPBL.html

• Features of a PBL Problem
• introduction,
• content,
• learning objectives,
• resources,
• expected outcome,
• guiding questions,
• assessment exercises,
• and time frame (Bridges, 1992).
• The students must be guided to reach both the objectives involved in solving the problem and the objectives related to the process.

• Creating An Appropriate Problem
• Choosing a relevant problem,
• Ensuring that the problem's coverage includes both the big idea and basic skills, and
• Ensuring the problem's complexity mimics real-life problems.

• Design Considerations
• How should PBL be incorporated into the curriculum?
• What problems should be used and how should they be presented?
• What are the instructional goals?
• How should small groups be formed?
• How much should each problem be pre-structured?
• How to evaluate the program and the students?
• What resources should be available?
• How to prepare students and faculty for PBL? (Bridges, 1992).

• Guidelines for Problems
• common situation to serve as a prototype for other situations,
• significant,
• prevention is possible,
• interdisciplinary,
• cover objectives,
• task oriented,
• and complex enough to incorporate prior knowledge (Albanese & Mitchell, 1993).

• Assessment of problem based learning; students and classes
• Assessing student achievement
• Written examinations
• Practical examinations
• Concept maps
• Peer assessment
• Self assessment
• Facilitators/tutor assessment
• Oral Presentations
• Reports
• Assessing the value of a problem based learning curriculum
• Attitudes
• Basic knowledge
• Reasoning and problem solving skills
• Team work

• Assessment of PBL

• Barriers to PBL
• PBL requires more time of students, expects to be responsible and independent learners
• More time to cover same content (transfer of info via lecture is certainly more efficient—but does learning really occur?)
• Requires technical and information support
• Lack of incentives for faculty

• Disadvantages of Problem Based Learning
• As with all learning theories, there are advantages and limitations when creating or implementing problem based learning curriculum. These limitations revolve around six topics:
• the academic achievement of students involved in problem based learning,
• the amount of time required for implementation,
• the changing role of the student in the process,
• the changing role of the teacher in the process,
• generating appropriate problems, and
• valid assessment of the program and student learning.

• How does PBL compare with other instructional approaches?

• Problem-Based Learning causes a shift in roles...

• Teacher as coach

• Student as active problem-solver

• Problem as initial challenge and motivation

• Models/coaches/fades in:
• Asking about thinking
• Monitoring learning
• Probing/ challenging students' thinking
• Keeping students involved
• Monitoring/ adjusting levels of challenge
• Managing group dynamics
• Keeping process moving

• Student as active problem-solver:
• Active participant
• Engaged
• Constructing meaning

• Problem as initial challenge and motivation to attention:
• Ill-structured
• Appeals to human desire for resolution/ stasis/harmony
• Sets up need for and context of learning which follows

“Science is knowledge not of things, but of their relations.”

• “Science is knowledge not of things, but of their relations.”

• Science is built up of facts, as a house is built up of stones, but an accumulation of facts is no more science than a heap of stones is a house.
• Henri Poincaré
• Science and Hypothesis