Individual Skill Block

I turned in my artifacts for my Individual Skill Block last week. I focused on using PBL activities in the classroom. I learned about PBL in a Gifted Education class at Western Carolina this summer as well as participating in CERTL seminars this year. I also did a self-study on a book (Problems as Possibilities). For the first half of the year, I was able to try PBL experiences with students from 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, and my AG students (3rd and 4th grade). I also helped do one in the 5th grade classes. I like the type of learning it develops and how it creates opportunities for children to think in different ways than the normally do at school.

Problems as Possibilities: Problem-Based Learning for K-16 Education
By Linda Torp and Sara Sage

*With PBL, you are not only teaching them basic skills but also providing a reason for learning them
*Students learn to approach learning differently in the classroom
*PBL also allows students to use the learning style that works best for them
*PBL provides rich opportunities for demonstrating learning through projects, presentations, or other means authentic to the situation
*Embedding essential instruction and assessment at critical points during problem investigation
*Knowing what doesn’t work or apply in a given situation is every bit as valuable as knowing what does
*The messiness of authentic problem solving yield rich learning
*PBL offers students an obvious answer to the questions about why they need to learn this information and how it relates to the real world
*PBL promotes Higher Order Thinking
*PBL encourages learning how to learn
*PBL requires authenticity
*PBL learning is focused instruction that fosters active learning, supports knowledge construction, and naturally integrates school learning and real life
*The teacher in he information-age environment will serve more as a coach or facilitator of learning, rather than a lecturer or drill-and-response instructor
*Constructivist model
*Requires teachers to assume the role of coach and students to be active learners and problem solvers
*We can show students how thinking one’s way to a solution can provide a personal satisfaction, which motivates more learning
*Designed to promote active student learning and provide a scaffolding of the teaching and learning process for educators
*Support for the learners may take different forms, depending on the age of the learners, as well as their interests and background
*The nature of the problem will also influence the type of support needed
*One area to avoid is teaching the content of the problem before starting
*Students learn the content and skills in the course of solving the problem
*Sometimes to afford students this stake and motivation, we place them in the role other than that of the student (Who would actually be concerned about this problem? What would someone have to gain or lose depending on how this situation was solved?)
*Look at what they did/how they did it . . . see what did and didn’t work and how that can be applied in the future
*PBL exemplifies a constructivist model for education, which serves to best prepare our students for life now and in the future
· 3 essential elements: context, students, curriculum
· in designing PBL, we begin with the problematic situation and tease out the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and standards-based learning opportunities
· PBL = Learning Adventure
· We need to put ourselves in our learners’ places and anticipate their questions, thinking, needs, and responses
· Once you know where you are going, you’ll need to consider how you and your students will travel through the twists and turns of the problem
*Group works can help promote creative problem solving and higher-order thinking skills
*Cooperative group work has also been linked with higher performance on complex problems
*Assessments for group work should include both individual and group accountability
embedded instruction refers to events planned by the PBL teacher to help students explore important information related to the problem
*“arriving where you need to be demands that you know where you are going”
*Begin with the end in mind
*Students learn by doing
*Decide what instructional strategy fits the purpose and the specific learning experiences
*Mistakes are a part of the learning process
*Mistakes are expected and help to differentiate one student’s performance from another student’s performance, one class’s performance from another class’s performance, or one school’s performance from . . .
*The research on PBL shows that students who can sustain thought and bring in a variety of perspectives to their approach to learning will have longer-lasting results from their learning experiences. They will emerge better able to meet the challenges awaiting them, whatever their pursuits may be.
*Problem solving and the higher-order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation are not learned through direct instruction. . . they emerge from the direct experience of doing . . . PBL provides that experience
*PBLis a motivating strategy for students with varied learning styles and strengths