Introduction to PBL
This tutorial will:
Define Problem-Based Learning
Describe ill-structured problems in PBL
Discuss the roles of teachers and students in PBL
Delineate the benefits of PBL
Clarify the parameters of PBL
What is PBL ?
What is PBL?
Problem-based learning (PBL) is a curriculum development and
instructional approach.
What does PBL do?
PBL simultaneously develops problem solving strategies,
disciplinary knowledge bases, and skills.
How does PBL do it?
By placing students in the active role of problem-solvers
confronted with an ill-structured problem which mirrors realworld problems.
Problem-based learning has as its organizing center the ill-structured
problem that ...
is messy and complex in nature
requires inquiry, information-gathering, and reflection
is changing and tentative
has no simple, fixed, formulaic, right solution
Examples of ill-structured problems used in PBL
You are:
a scientist at the state department of nuclear safety. Some people in a
small community feel their health is at risk because a company keeps
thorium piled above ground at one of their plants. What action, if any,
should be taken?
Summer Challenge 1992, IMSA
a consultant to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. A first draft of a
plan for the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone has received
strong, negative testimony at hearings. What is your advice regarding
the plan?
John Thompson, Ecology, IMSA
a science advisor at NASA. A planet much like the earth has
experienced massive destruction of elements of its biosphere. What is
causing the destruction of plant life? Can new plants from earth be
successfully introduced to help save the planet's environment?
Bill Orton, 2nd grade, Williamsburg, VA
a thirty-six year old single working mother with a five year old
daughter. Upon your husband's death, you receive $20,000 in worker's
compensation and $10,000 in stock option shares. How can you invest
this money so that by your daughter's 18th birthday, its growth is
maximized?
LuAnn Malik, Community College of Aurora, Aurora, CO
a member of President Truman's Interim Committee. What advice will
you give the President to help end the war in the Pacific? An atomic
bomb has just been detonated at Los Alamos.
Bill Stepien, American Studies, IMSA
invited to participate in a special session of your school board to
determine whether Huckleberry Finn should be taught in your school
district given its inclusion on a state censorship list.
Ed Plum, American Literature, District #214, Barrington, IL
a stockholder of a major oil refinery in Louisiana which has mined oil
from wetlands in the southern part of the state. You have received
pressure from publicity about the wetlands to make it property of the
federal government so that it can be protected. What will you do?
Christine Vitale, 4-5 multi-grade, Arlington Heights, IL
the principal of Foggeybottom High School asked by the school board
to present a new comprehensive blue-print for all teachers to use at
the school. What will your plan look like? What rationale will you give
for the plan?
Diana Weidenbacker, Winnacunnet Alternative School, Winnacunnet, NY
How does PBL compare with other
instructional approaches?
Considerations:
role of the problem
role of the teacher
role of the learner
Problem-based learning begins with the introduction of an illstructured problem on which all learning centers. Teachers assume
the role of cognitive and metacognitive coach rather than knowledgeholder and disseminator; students assume the role of active problemsolvers, decision-makers, and meaning-makers rather than passive
listeners.
Problem-Based Learning causes a shift in roles...
Teacher as coach
Models/coaches/fades in:
Asking about thinking
Monitoring learning
Probing/ challenging students' thinking
Keeping students involved
Monitoring/ adjusting levels of challenge
Managing group dynamics
Keeping process moving
Student as active problem-solver
Active participant
Engaged
Constructing meaning
Problem as initial challenge and motivation
Ill-structured
Appeals to human desire for resolution/stasis/harmony
Sets up need for and context of learning which follows
What are the benefits of PBL?
Motivation
PBL makes students more engaged in learning because they are hard
wired to respond to dissonance and because they feel they are
empowered to have an impact on the outcome of the investigation.
Relevance And Context
PBL offers students an obvious answer to the questions, Why do we
need to learn this information?" and "What does what I am doing in
school have to do with anything in the real world?
Higher-Order Thinking
The ill-structured problem scenario calls forth critical and creative
thinking by suspending the guessing game of, What's the right answer
the teacher wants me to find?
Learning How To Learn
PBL promotes metacognition and self-regulated learning by asking
students to generate their own strategies for problem definition,
information gathering, data-analysis, and hypothesis-building and
testing, comparing these strategies against and sharing them with
other students' and mentors' strategies.
Authenticity
PBL engages students in learning information in ways that are similar
to the ways in which it will be recalled and employed in future
situations and assesses learning in ways which demonstrate
understanding and not mere acquisition. (Gick and Holyoak, 1983).
Parameters for PBL
While there are many possible formats for presenting problem-based
learning units, the following principles remain consistent:
In a PBL unit, the ill-structured problem is presented first and
serves as the organizing center and context for learning.
The problem on which learning centers:
is ill-structured in nature
is met as a messy situation
often changes with the addition of new information
is not solved easily or formulaically
does not always result in a right answer
PBL classrooms, students assume the role of problem-solvers;
teachers assume the role of tutors and coaches.
In the teaching and learning process, information is shared but
knowledge is a personal construction of the learner. Thinking is fully
articulated and held to strict bench marks.
Assessment is an authentic companion to the problem and process.
The PBL unit is not necessarily interdisciplinary in nature but is is
always integrative.
Inquiry about this page?
Contact its editor, Debra Gerdes.
This page was last modifed 20 Dec '04
