Learning Community: Problem-Based Learning

Transcript for the Learning Community presentation

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered approach in which students learn about a subject by working in groups to solve an open-ended problem.

The Motivation to Learn Begins with a Problem: In a problem-based learning (PBL) model, students engage complex, challenging problems and collaboratively work toward their resolution. PBL is about students connecting disciplinary knowledge to real-world problems—the motivation to solve a problem becomes the motivation to learn.

It’s encouraging that Project Based Learning is becoming popular, but popularity can bring problems. Here at the Buck Institute for Education, we’re concerned that the recent upsurge of interest in PBL will lead to wide variation in the quality of project design and classroom implementation.

Driving questions (DQ) can be a beast. When I train teachers, they say the same thing, "Writing the driving question is one of the hardest parts of an effective PBL." I agree. When I am constructing a DQ for a PBL project, I go through many drafts. It's only now, after implementing many projects and having coached countless teachers that I consider myself adept.

In project-based learning, project kickoff is an exciting day -- and for good reason. This is when PBL shifts from planning to active learning -- the moment when students enter the picture. By planning entry events that fire up their curiosity, you'll engage students' sense of inquiry right from the start.

What's the opposite of scaffolding a lesson? It would be saying to students something like, "Read this nine-page science article, write a detailed essay on the topic it explores, and turn it in by Wednesday." Yikes -- no safety net, no parachute, no scaffolding -- just left blowing in the wind.

Many of the teachers we work with find it fairly easy to envision the end of a project – the products students will create, and the big finish when students publicly share their work, their solution to a problem, or their answer to a driving question. And with a little coaching, teachers can plan an effective entry event to launch the project and get students underway on their initial tasks. But one of the most challenging parts of PBL is figuring out the “middle part” of a project – how to manage the day-to-day work of students and teams.

Following a brief introduction to problem-based learning (PBL) as one type of highly-engaged pedagogy, this article examines how PBL activities in a first-year writing class and an upper-level professional writing and rhetoric class led students to develop rhetorical subjectivities.

The purpose of this paper is to qualitatively examine the relationship between problem based learning, authentic assessment and the role of community in fostering learning in digital contexts.

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a constructivist pedagogical approach to learning in which students work together to find solutions to a complex problem.

Students' learning goals demonstrate much stronger variety than traditional goal orientation models for classroom learning assume, especially when the educational context allows so. In this empirical study we will investigate the richness of students' goal orientation in a collaborative learning context.