*As I was unable to get my hands on someone's book to borrow this week, I am blogging about the problem-based learning projects introduced in class this week.
Throughout the week, I had some discussions with classmates about how problem-based learning can be made relevant in our classrooms. I didn't want to agree with those who right now see no relevance, but there was some pretty strong support behind their ideas. However, because I want my group to do our project on something with the environment (like recycling), I was brainstorming today for awhile about it.
Aaaand I found one way to make it relevant in both English Language Arts and in Social Studies. (So don't steal my ideas...) Here was my thought. In English, a problem-based learning project could stem from reading T.S. Elliot's poem "The Wasteland," because the wasteland in the poem is created from the people, and we could therefore compare it with the waste generated by people today. Aligned with this in Social Studies could be the Industrial Revolution and all the polution and such that came with it. I also think it's important that we see these relationships over time and how some things have changed drastically (thanks to technology) and some things have not changed at all (thanks again to technology, or lack thereof).
I still wonder about the question of time and how we might be able to do such a project in a 45-minute class period (such as the one I'm in now at MSL). However, I do believe problem-based learning seems incredibly engaging depending on the topic chosen, and it seems like something I would like to try in a classroom.
In the first handout on "What is Problem-Based Learning" introduced by the Association for Suepervision and Curriculum Development, it is stated that "The problems that students meet during PBL demand the same problem-solving strategies we use in the real world: making observations, creating hypotheses, conducting investigations, collecting information, defining issues, evaluating our thinking, developing possible solutions, and selecting solutions that fit our construction of the problem" (41). This statement is why PBL is legitimate in any classroom; because it is relevant. Relevant not only to the student's life by the topic as it affects each individual, but because the project probes them not only to learn lifelong skills, but to use them...
1 comment:
I really like your idea of incorporating environmental issues into the classroom and then tying it back to social studies and English. But I too wonder how it could be pulled off in one class period. It would probably take at least 3 days to complete. One to go over the social studies, one to go over the English, and then a third where this concept could be brought together. I really like how involved the students have to be in a PBL project though. It lets the students really feel like they are in charge of their own learning for a change and it lets their creativity shine through. This is important to foster so that education does not just seem monotonous and completely teacher-directed.
I just wish, like all teachers do, that we had more time to do things like this. You might be able to do maybe one or possibly two PBL projects a semester. But it would be really nice to be able to do more. Unfortunately, they are cutting back on time in social studies, not giving more so I can’t see being able to work more than one PBL project in.
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