Problem-based Learning (PBL) 2

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered instructional strategy in which students collaboratively solve problems and reflect on their experiences. It was pioneered and used extensively at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada as well as the Monterrey Institute of Technology ITESM. The Materials department at Queen Mary, University of London was the first Materials department in the UK to introduce PBL.^[1]

PBL is based on the educational theories of Vygotsky, Dewey, and others, and is related to social-cultural constructivist theories of learning and instructional design.

Characteristics of PBL are:

• Learning is driven by challenging, open-ended, ill-defined and ill-structured, practical problems.
• Students generally work in collaborative groups. Problem based learning environments may be designed for individual learning.
• Teachers take on the role as "facilitators" of learning.
• Instructional activities are based on learning strategies involving semantic reasoning, case based reasoning, analogical reasoning, causal reasoning, and inquiry reasoning, These activities include creating stories; reasoning about cases; concept mapping; causal mapping; cognitive hypertext crisscrossing; reason analysis unredoing; analogy making; and question generating;

In PBL, students are encouraged to take responsibility for their group and organize and direct the learning process with support from a tutor or instructor. Advocates of PBL claim it can be used to enhance content knowledge and foster the development of communication, problem-solving, and self-directed learning skill.

PBL positions students in simulated real world working and professional contexts which involve policy, process, and ethical problems that will need to be understood and resolved to some outcome. By working through a combination of learning strategies to discover the nature of a problem, understanding the constraints and options to its resolution, defining the input variables, and understanding the viewpoints involved, students learn to negotiate the complex sociological nature of the problem and how competing resolutions may inform decision-making.

Sources: wikipedia

Overview and Characteristics Problem based learning has several distinct characteristics which may be identified and utilized in designing such curriculum. These are: Use of real world problems - problems are relevant and contextual. It is in the process of struggling with actual problems that students learn content and critical thinking skills. Reliance on problems to drive the curriculum - the problems do not test skills; they assist in development of the skills themselves. The problems are truly ill-structured - there is not meant to be one solution, and as new information is gathered in a reiterative process, perception of the problem, and thus the solution, changes. (Adapted from Stepien, W.J. and Gallagher, S.A. 1993. "Problem-based Learning: As Authentic as it Gets." Educational Leadership. 50(7) 25-8 and Barrows, H. (1985) How to Design a Problem Based Curriculum for the Pre-Clinical Years.) PBL is learner-centered - learners are progressively given more responsibility for their education and become increasingly independent of the teacher for their education. PBL produces independent, life-long learners - students continue to learn on their own in life and in their careers. From Schools of California Online Resources for Education and Problem Based Learning Initiative at Southern Illinois Institute

sources: stanford

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