PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING

“A learning method based on using problems as a starting point for acquisition and
integration of new knowledge”
Problem-Based Learning engages students in the process of problem solving: how to
think about the problem and to find possible solutions. The focus is on developing
students’ ability to think critically, creatively and productively about a problem, while
also nurturing team skills.
Challenged with a complex, real-world problem, students work in collaborative groups
or teams to understand the problem and propose solutions. Often such problems do
not have an obvious solution, but are examples of challenging, open-ended problems
faced in our world today. Students must analyze the nature of the problem, identify
what they need to know and how to find needed information, reach informed
judgments, and apply what they learn to generate ideas for possible solutions.
Frequently combined, problem-based, project-based, and team-based learning are well-
established teaching techniques at Stanford University. All are collaborative and involve
active learning. Student teams may be interdisciplinary and, with online technologies,
globally distributed. Problems may have local or global significance, and in some cases
are provided by corporate and other partners.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING

 Relies on Problems (Well defined Cases) to drive curriculum
 PBL relies on real life problems, where students act as professionals.
 PBL problems are not precise –they are not intended to generate neat answers.
In their struggle to find the answer, the students will gain essential problem
solving and critical thinking skills.
 There are no single correct or incorrect solutions (Problems must be designed so
that different appropriate answers might apply) –there is never meant to be just
one solution.
 Teaching staff are facilitators or coaches, and must resist providing solutions
(Students solve the problems)
 Students are provided with guidance but not answers –they should be given
guidance in techniques that might be used for problem solving.
 Assessment should be based upon performance not upon giving correct answers.
Ideas for Problem-based Learning Opportunities
If no project ideas immediately occur to you and your students, try collaborating with
other educators in your school building or community to share insights. You may also
join online communities dedicated to problem-based learning. Another good source of
inspiration is local business leaders—especially those who might be willing to serve as a
resource for students.
Here are a few questions that can help jump-start brainstorming:

1. How can we limit food waste in the school cafeteria?

2. How might we better control the area deer population?
3. How could we improve access to healthy food in our community?
4. How could we track and protect local plant or animal species?
5. How could we improve school attendance?
6. How might we limit cold and flu transmission among students?
7. Is there a better way to manage school traffic during pick-up and drop-off
times?

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
PBL or project-based learning is a learning method in which students identify a real-
world problem and develop its solution. Students gain knowledge and skills by working
for a longer period of time to investigate and respond to an engaging or complex
question, problem or challenge.
Guide your students to identify, through research, a real-world problem of which they
have to develop a solution using evidence to support the claim. They have to present
their project through a multimedia approach based on a set of 21st-century tools.
Students show what they learn as they go through the unit, interact with the lessons,
collaborate with each other and assess themselves and each other.

Why should you use project-based learning?

Project-based learning is not something new, teachers just didn’t use it a lot when you
were young. The ordinary way of teaching is teaching with disconnected lessons. Daily
lessons that teach a skill which fits into a unit based on a topic or a theme. But, each
lesson works independently and doesn’t connect other units in a learning story.
Besides creating a learning story that connects everything to each other, there are
plenty other reasons to use PBL:
1. PBL provides opportunities for students to use technology
Most students are using technology and apps almost every day. They are familiar with
and enjoy using a variety of tech tools. As it happens, tech tools can be a perfect fit
with project-based learning. With those tools and apps, teachers and students can find
the right resources, information, create products and collaborate more effectively. They
can even reach out to communities, experts and partners.
2. PBL promotes lifelong learning.
Because technology is present, its use enables students, teachers and administrators to
reach out beyond the school building. PBL also teaches students to take control of their
learning, the first step as a lifelong learner.
3. PBL connect students and schools with the real world
Project-based learning enables students to solve problems and address issues important
to them, their communities, and the world. Through PBL, students learn how to interact
with adults and organizations. They are exposed to real workplaces and jobs so they
will develop career interests. Even parents and other partners can be involved in certain
projects.
4. PBL lends itself to formative and authentic assessment
Formative assessment allows us to systematically document a student’s progress and
development. Authentic assessment focuses on deep learning, asking thorough
questions.

 Why is this any different than any other class? Well, PBL encourages formative
and authentic assessment by doing the following:
 It allows students to demonstrate their capabilities while working independently.
 It lets teachers have multiple assessment opportunities.
 It shows the student’s ability to apply skills such as doing research.
 It develops a student’s ability to work with other students, building teamwork
and group skills.
 The teacher learns more about the student as a person.
 It helps the teachers communicate in meaningful ways with the student or a
team. Being able to give meaningful feedback is very important.
5. PBL encourages students to be more engaged and to learn actively
The fact that students are working on a project that has to be the key of solving a
problem, makes them more actively involved. A real project engages their mind and
their hearts. It’s a real world relevance for learning.
6. PBL builds skills for college, career and life
Success in life requires more than knowledge and skills. With PBL, students learn how
to take initiative, be responsible and build a good attitude. They learn to build their
confidence, solve problems, work in teams, and communicate ideas.
7. PBL encourages imagination and creativity
When you need to solve a problem, you have to be inventive and creative. PBL often
asks to solve world class problems, so thinking out of the box is necessary. Because
there are no real guidelines, visual design, drawing, and creating are very important
elements within project based learning.

EXAMPLES OF PROJECT-BASED LEARNING ACTIVITIES

•Shrinking potato chip bags in the microwave. Students can learn about polymers
through hands-on activities using some of their favorite products, like shoes and
sporting equipment. As a culminating activity, they can put a wrapper from their
favorite chips or candy bar into the microwave for five seconds to learn about how
polymers return to their natural state when exposed to the heat.
•Design an app. Students love using the newest apps and games, so take it to the next
level by having them design their own! With Apple developer tools, kids can learn how
to create an app or online game. They can learn about technology and problem-solving
skills while engaged in what they love.
•Student farm. Students will learn lessons about science, social studies, math, and
economics through planting their own organic farm. They can begin by researching the
crops they want, figure out what kind of care is needed, and then use a budget to
determine what materials they must purchase. They can even sell food from their farm
to contribute to a cause or fundraiser.
•Research project: negativity in the media. Begin with a discussion about what “media”
is, and bring in examples. Talk about what each kind of media (newspapers, music,
news sites, etc.) is used for. Move on to examples of the messages conveyed by certain
types of media, and how this message is articulated. Then assign groups to create their
own “media” (a website, a newspaper article, a commercial, etc.). Have each group
work on generating a message (positive vs. negative).
•Bridge building. Students begin by studying the engineering of bridge building,
comparing the construction of famous bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge or Tower
Bridge in London. Then they work in teams to construct bridges out of Popsicle sticks.
The challenge is to get their bridge to hold five pounds (for younger students) or
twenty pounds (for more advanced students).
 RESEARCH-BASED TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Research-based teaching means that students carry out research in their courses
independently and with an open outcome.
This helps to internalize and practice research conducts and methods, skills such as
formulating a precise question and processing and monitoring a research process.
Students attain abilities in dealing with uncertainty, independence, teamwork and
organizational skills.
The connection of research and teaching via this active method advances Humboldt's
ideal of education in the framework of the development of character.
This form of teaching and learning focuses on the joint acquisition of new knowledge by
lecturers and students. This requires lecturers to reflect on their role as teachers and
learners.
Research-based teaching means that the learners, teachers and the curriculum apply
research- based approach in the learning- teaching process with an open outcome.

 The demands of the 21st century are solving problems flexibly, thinking critically
and creatively, using knowledge and skills in new situations, collaboration and
communication skills and technology literacy.
 There are nine categories of instructional strategies that are needed to consider
in the field of teaching and in the process of this approach.

 The first category is the setting objectives and providing feedback. Provide
students with a direction for learning and information about how well they are
performing relative to a particular learning objective so they can improve their
performance. Provide feedback to make students understand what was correct
and what was incorrect and to make clear what students need to do next.
Provide feedback in time to meet students’ needs and should be criterion
reference. As a teacher, you should engage students in feedback process.
 Reinforcing effort and providing recognition. Enhance students’ understanding of
the relationship between effort and achievement by addressing students’
attitudes and beliefs about learning. Provide students with abstract tokens of
recognition or praise for their accomplishments related to the attainment of a
goal. Teach students that success is within their control because it comes as a
result of their effort and not because of other people or of luck and, of course,
provide praise that is specific and aligned with expected performance and
behaviors
 Cooperative learning. Provide students with opportunities to interact with one
another in ways that enable their learning. Learning atmosphere is more
favorable when students work together rather than compete and work against
one another.
 Cues, questions and advance organizers. Enhance students’ ability to retrieve,
use and organize what they already know about the topic. Use explicit clues. This
can be done by giving preview of what is to be learned perhaps with the use of
pictures, by explaining the learning outcomes of the lesson/unit and providing a
list of guide questions that they should be able to answer at the end of the
lesson. Ask inferential questions, not fact questions and make use of advance
organizers. This is meant to give the students what they are expected to learn
before the real teaching-learning takes place.

 In this category, there are four formats involved namely the expository,
narrative, skimming, and graphic.
 The first format, expository advance organizer, describes in written or verbal
form the new content the students are about to learn. A narrative advance
organizer presents lesson in a story form to make relevant connection to the
lesson. Skimming is when the teacher provides the learners with the opportunity
to skim over the information that is about to be introduced, focusing on
highlighted information. Graphic Organizers are used as a method of presenting
information in the visual realm. They are efficient because they highlight and
focus on just the important aspects and they also show relationships between
necessary information. Graphic Organizers take on a plethora of avenues and
looks, but the two most utilized are Venn Diagrams and Concept Mapping.
 Non-linguistic representation. This enhances the student’s ability to represent
and elaborate on knowledge using mental images. In a research, it was
concluded that 18% are auditory learners, 32% are visual learners, 25% are
tactile learners, and 25% are kinesthetic learners. There are many ways to teach
non-linguistic representation for more effective and informational way of
teaching.
 Summarizing and note taking. Enhance student’s ability to synthesize information
and organize it in a way that captures the main idea and supporting details.
When we talk about summarizing, it is how we take larger selections of text and
reduce them to their bare essentials: the gist, the key ideas, the main points that
are worth noting and remembering. Note Taking is the practice of writing down
pieces of information in a systematic way.
 Assigning homework and providing practice. Extend the learning opportunities
for students to practice, review and apply knowledge. Enhance student’s ability
to reach the expected level of proficiency for a skill or process. To ensure that
 homework works, design homework that provides students with opportunities to
practice skills and processes in order to increase their speed, accuracy, fluency
and conceptual understanding or to extend their learning on a topic already
learned.
 Identifying similarities and difference. Enhance students’ understanding of and
ability to use knowledge by engaging them in a mental process that involves
identifying ways in which items are alike and objectives. Comparing is showing
similarities and differences. Classifying is the process of organizing groups and
labeling them according to their similarities. Creating metaphors is the process of
identifying a general or basic pattern in a specific topic and then finding another
topic that appears to be quite different but has the same general pattern and
creator analogies is the process of identifying relationships between pairs of
concepts or between relationships.
 The last category is generating and testing hypotheses. Enhance students’
understanding of and ability to use knowledge by engaging them in a mental
process that involve making and testing hypotheses. When students generate
and test hypotheses they actually applied principles learned. They deepen their
understanding of the principles upon which they base their hypotheses.
Generating and testing hypotheses can be also applied in problem solving. The
process of generating and testing hypotheses can also apply in investigation
process. In all of these instances where the students are asked to generate
hypotheses, the students are made to explain why they should forward such
hypotheses. To help students learn for mastery the teacher must ensure mastery
by seeing to it that he/she creates a positive learning atmosphere develops
through understanding of the lesson not only memory or recall and that he/she
gives opportunities to students to extend and apply their learning.