a presentation by Donna Mastroianni, December 3, 2014
Solving the complex problems of today requires teamwork, problem solving, research and synthesis. In this workshop, participants learned how to design and assess PBL lessons for their students.
I remember the day I decided that there
had to be another way to teach like it was yesterday. I had great visuals, organized notes and some classroom activities to
complete. I was explaining a concept and looked out into the crowd and saw
disengaged students. That
night I started researching different pedagogy.
How did you discover PBL?
I
was searching for a more interactive method to teach Anatomy and Physiology
(A&P) when I stumbled upon several articles about Problem Based Learning. One of these sites
was at the University of Delaware (UD). UD had recently transformed many of
their undergraduate courses by implementing PBL. I attended a conference there and was inspired.
How has PBL positively impacted teaching and learning in your classroom?
In PBL the problems are used to motivate
students to identify and research concepts they need to know to work through
the problem. PBL requires the student to think critically and to be
able to analyze information presented. PBL also requires students to work
cooperatively in groups and to demonstrate effective verbal and written communication.
PBL days in the classroom are noisy and
require more energy than lecturing.
What are the biggest challenges to PBL?
I think the biggest challenge for the
instructor is relinquishing control in the classroom. I still struggle with
this. I think as an educator you have to be ok with not covering as much
content as you would in a straight lecture class. The trade off is students learn
things in more depth, with better understanding and there is an increased chance
the concept will stay with them longer.
I think it is also difficult at times to
sit back and let the students figure things out on their own. You have to be ok
with letting them flounder a little, knowing you can fill in the missing pieces
or clear up misconceptions at the end of the problem.
Another challenge is resistance from the
students. Many students do not enjoy working in groups due to social reasons or because they do not want the group work to affect their grade.
What advice do you have for your colleagues interested in PBL?
I think if you are interested in PBL but
hesitant to try it, I would start small and implement one problem in your
course. There are so many resources out
there that you don’t even have to write the problem. It is worth taking
the chance. I am happy to meet with anyone who is interested in PBL.
Is there anything else you want to add?
I’m often asked, “How do you
assess what they’ve learned?”
The simplest way is to incorporate the concepts of the problem into
tests and quiz questions, but there are many other assessment tools to measure
mastery of the material. I always have test questions on each problem, but I also
have the students produce some type of ‘product’ to show mastery. It can be a
group project or an individual project. The project could be a group power
point presentation, a poster, an infographic, a podcast or writing a newspaper
article, etc. I also have the students anonymously grade their group mates on
effort and teamwork for every problem. This helps to insure that no one gets a
free ride and that group mates are held accountable for their actions and
contribution to the workings of the group. There are a lot of resources available for organizing groups.
Resources:
Problem-Based Learning at the University of Delaware - Register to access their clearinghouse to find great problems for your class.
Faculty participants working on a "problem" |