Problem Based Learning: How can students learn in school that life is a reality to be experienced?

If you ask what students learn when we give them a Problem Based Learning (PBL) “scenario” to learn through, teachers answers are entirely predictable.

In PBL they will tell you ... students learn through activities that are interdisciplinary, student-centered, collaborative, and authentic in that the PBL scenarios are integrated into real world issues and practices.... and what they learn ... well what they learn through PBL learning experiences is stuff that prepares them for living in the 21st Century.

This is usually followed by a string of process talk that buttons the buttons of authenticating the learning> awakening prior knowledge> strengthening prior knowledge> constructing relevant questions> planning the research, discovering relevant information>constructing the knowledge> new insights and understandings is .

And because of these beliefs discussion over the student learning outcomes in PBL tend to revolve around

What information is given to students in the “scenario”?

What do students infer from the information they are given in the “scenario”

And sometimes but not often enough

What do students assume from the information they are given in the “scenario”

These are undoubtedly worthy questions for educators to explore but I think there are better ones...

I’d like to “lucychili wind” the focus out a bit and look at learning through problem solving per se.  To ask what else is being learned through PBL activity?

To ask ...

1. What information is given to students who learn through PBL pedagogies?
2. What do students infer from the information they are given?
3. What do students assume from the information they are given?

I think that an inconvenient problem is exposed when we examine the information, inference and assumptions made by students when they are immersed in PBL.

In PBL students learn that:

1.  Problems in a lived experience are identified and described by people with institutional authority.
ie The act of giving students the PBL scenario means for students problem finding and problem scoping is something passive, something done by others with institutional authority.

Students must assume that

2. People with institutional authority can reliably and validly identify problems in the lived experience of others.

And although they sit outside the problem framing, and outside the lived experience, students must infer that 

3. They can “solve” the problems identified and described by someone in authority in a way that satisfies the perspectives of the person who framed the problem .... the person with institutional authority

And that although they sit outside the problem framing, and outside the lived experience,I suspect that all our talk about authenticity means that in PBL we encourage the belief that

4 They can “solve” the problems identified and described by someone in authority in a way that satisfies the perspectives of the people identified in the scenario. 

When we asssess or encourage their peers to assess the outcomes I suspect we tell students that

5.  When problems are initiated by others, the problem solving response must fit within the solutions pre-determined by the problem constructor 

By that I mean that the way in which the PBL case study is constructed will favour particular solutions – that old “Problems are formulated by people who can envisage a solution”.

Furthermore In PBL we suggest to students that

6.  Complex and conflicting lived experiences can be simplified to solutions

And that

7.  These solutions can be identified by outsiders ... by students (who are essentially coerced into the role of becoming observers of the observations of an institutional observer of the lived experience.)

It is Sponge Bob and Patrick all over again

"You mean to say they've taken what we thought we think and made us think we thought our thoughts we've been thinking our thoughts we think we thought... You think?"

And it is not as if any of this is remediable by dealing with the different authority structures in PBL and letting students identify and craft the issues and problems they find in a lived experience

We still have the issue that learning through PBL means that student learning is happening in a context that assumes life is a problem to be solved

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”  Soren Kierkegaard

8.  PBL reinforces the assumption that life is a problem to be solved

For Pita Sharples argument in Speech: Boys in Education Conference – Wednesday 19 April, 2006* in
New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, Volume 3, Issue 1, 3-11, 2006...

If we construct boys as a group of people who lack equality, resources, opportunity, expectations, confidence, talents, achievement, communication skills, literacy skills, support, attention we are forever restricting the discussion to one around negativity, a discourse of disadvantage.

... could be just as easily made for schools whose students predominantly learn through pedagogies of problem based learning

If we allow [those in authority to construct through PBL scenarios the lived experiences of others as experiences] that lack equality, resources, opportunity,  expectations, confidence, talents, achievement, communication skills, literacy skills, support, attention we are forever restricting the discussion to one around negativity, a discourse of disadvantage.

All of which makes me want to ask

How can students learn in school that life is a reality to be experienced?

Comments

[Tony Forster]

From Toward a Design Theory of Problem Solving
David H. Jonassen:

Unfortunately,students are rarely, if ever, required to solve meaningful problems as part of their curricula.
.... The discrepancy between what learners need (complex, ill-structured problem-solving experience) and what formal education (schools and corporate training) provides represents a complex and
ill-structured problem ...

Ill-structured problems appear ill-structured because they:
• Possess problem elements that are unknown
or not known with any degree of confidence
(Wood, 1983).
• Possess multiple solutions, solution paths, or
no solutions at all (Kitchner, 1983).
• Possess multiple criteria for evaluating solutions,
so there is uncertainty about which
concepts, rules, and principles are necessary
for the solution and how they are organized.
• Often require learners to make judgments
and express personal opinions or beliefs
about the problem, so ill-structured problems
are uniquely human interpersonal activities
(Meacham & Emont, 1989)

[Artichoke]

Ahh Tony ... this is just the book I need to read ...

I was becoming anxious about my thinking on this ... suspecting that overthinking was making me unstable and that I was fretting about stuff unnecessarily much like Dennis Messner in Beaver Overthinking Dam

[Karyn Romeis]

One erm... problem I see with problem based learning in the school environment is the construction of the problem. With all due respect, if a teacher has only ever been a teacher, the sort of problems that the students might encounter in the pursuit of other careers are at best a matter of hearsay to the teacher. An ICT teacher who has never been an ICT professional in a corporate workplace or a business studies teacher who has never run a business might find it difficult to develop a realistic problem scenario for the students to unpick.

People I know who have gone from being practitioners in their field to being teachers, seem to do better here. For example, my cousin is a doctor of ornithology and worked in the field of wildlife managment for several years before going to teach biology, Vicki Davis also worked in a corporate environment before becoming a teacher. They have the benefit of real-world experience behind them.

I'm not sure that I have an answer for this one, but, being the only corporate person on my MA programme, I have found the suggestions of my classmates almost whimsical when it comes to painting business scenarios.

I suspect some form of partnership between local businesses and schools would serve both to develop the community and provide insight in the world beyond the school walls.

[Artichoke]

This is an interesting argument Karyn ... and in extending the idea in the post -(that if teachers construct the scenarios that they assume institutional authority to interpret other peoples lives and also risk massively misunderstanding what is going on for the people living those lives) ... to your claim that only someone who comes from a corporate world can write authentically about corporate problems, or a medical world about medical problems ... is something that makes me uncomfotable ... I think that all you are suggesting is a shift in the locus of authority ... rather than my argument that problems should not be scoped by authorities per se ...but in doing this you expose a weakness in my thinking ...or at least I think you do

There is an interesting post on Beattie’s Book Blog ...that expresses the discomfort I feel about extending this line of argument ... and Beattie does this more eloquently than I can

• In November, 2005, New Zealand artist Lyn Bergquist was shown the door. The Warkworth artist’s work, intended to be displayed at an Auckland gallery, was rejected by the gallery owner because… because it depicted Maori flags.
  Oedipus Rex Gallery director Jennifer Buckley told Radio New Zealand, “Flags are symbols and emblems of a very specific culture. And these are Maori flags. I would have the same issue with a Maori artist using my MacKenzie tartan.”
  Flags or tartans, art or literature, the issue is cultural appropriation. Of all the dumb ideas to come out of academia, cultural appropriation is just about my least favourite.
  Why? Oh, let me count the ways.

  The first and worst thing about it is this: the notion of appropriation strikes at the very heart of what artists — painters and sculptors, composers and lyricists, novelists and playwrights — do. We make things up. We make people up. We make up cultures and countries and tartans and flags. And the only limit we want applied to our characters is the limit of our imaginations. I'm writing a book with three main characters: a Jewish boy from New York, a Montana boy in trouble with the law and a Black girl who’s the catcher on a baseball team. If I took appropriation seriously, two of ‘em would have to go.

  Second, I firmly believe the world is a better place for “appropriation.” If Annie Proulx hadn't written about Newfoundland because she was an American, Shipping News would never have won all those awards. If Ted Dawe hadn’t written about living rough because he’s not a street kid, a member of the young urban tribe, K. Road would never have been published. And, really, if Paula Morris hadn't written Trendy But Causal, I wouldn’t have spent half an hour rolling around in bed, laughing my socks off.

  All three books reveal the world, perhaps all the better because the authors viewed the place they were writing about with the fresh eyes of someone from a distance.

  Third, if appropriation is damaging to writers, it’s just as damaging to other arts. Would the world be as rich, would women be better served, if Reubens didn’t paint their likeness? If Picasso had limited his art to white European males? If Titian, if Rodin, if most of the visual artists of our millennium hadn't followed their own admiring vision?

  Fourth, and for now, finally, when academic voices call for an end to appropriation as a protection of minority culture, they pose the greatest danger to… minority artists. Why should Black artists be limited to painting Black subjects? Jewish women to writing about Jewish women? Ngai Tahu writing poems about Ngai Tahu and not Ngati Mahuta, Ngai Wai, or white settlers from Dalmatia? Would New Zealand really be better off in Hone Tuwhare only wrote from a Maori perspective, and only about Maori subjects?

I have to do some more thinking about this ... who has the "authority" to scope the PBL scenario? questions versus .... does anyone have the "authority" to scope the PBL scenario? questions versus should everyone have the "authority" to scope the PBL scenario? questions versus my suspicion that the whole approach to learning is helplessly conflicted, and despite the claims of its admirers PBL is a flawed walled garden learning experience for many of our students

[Stella]

I get your point. I think schools should impose on-the-job trainings for students for them to experience the outside world. When I was in college, we were assigned to work with real companies to better expose us with the reality. Exposure to the real and outside world is really helpful for students in their preparation to enter that world.

[Artichoke]

Hi Stella, thanks for the comment, I think you are right to identify that if students want to experience the "real" "authentic" "connected" experience it is not going to happen in the institution we call school ...

....unless of course they want to know what teaching in school is like ...

...there are heaps of different dual enrolment work experience type initiatives that try to transition this for kids ...

I am just never sure what long term difference they make ... there is an OECD report on this somewhere ... Starting Well or Losing their Way? The Position of Youth in the Labour Market in OECD Countries by Glenda Quintini and Sébastien Martin which is quite interesting ...

... think "impose" is a tricky word but I take your point ... much of what happens to kids in school is imposition ...

I wonder what it is like to be part time in school and part time in work ... to not belong in either place ... we are so tied to seeing school as the only place kids can learn ....there must be a better solution than framing all this how to live stuff through school ... someway in which local businesses and industry horticulture etc saw educating the young as part of their role and responsibility to citizenship as well

[Stella]

Yes, kids can learn so many things in school but learning is not limited to that. Parents should let their kids join some activities outside school or expose them to the outside world so as to trigger their mind and awareness. Not to involve them in the problems of the society but to let them enjoy the world, not just school and home. Since the advent of the internet or television and indoor games, kids become more of a couch potato that results to shyness. Bringing them outside will help in developing their self-confidence.

Okay, its becoming broader now. :) I just like your post, its very substantial. Thanks.

[minh]

The world is rich in challenges & problems & complex situations looking for designed responses to make them manageable.

Once we properly acknowledge that the children are capable of making meaningful contributions of high utility the teacher's 'problem' becomes one of selection. Given this should also be done in consultation with the students the level of engagement in likely to improve. In my experience it does. Also get the kids involved in the assessment of the pedagogic effectiveness of the project/learning design & show them how you will use it to inform your own practice.

Discuss this 'problem' of PBL limitations with the kids. What do they think? Have this be your problem de jour.

:)
minh

I have taught in the real world & know the constraints BUT teachers' attitudes set so much.

[Artichoke]

Discuss this 'problem' of PBL limitations with the kids. What do they think? Have this be your problem de jour. :) minh

Minh .... This is an idea that I like a lot .... it is better than asking students to identify on their own a problem based learning scenario from a lived experience (for all the reasons identified in the post) ... and better than simply asking students to accept a problem about the lived experience of others sketched out of the experience and perspectives of someone with institutional authority - say an educator who may have only ever worked within an educational institution ...

....Is it better than asking the people within the lived experience to describe/ identify and analyse the problem and to work with them to help them identify solutions that would work for them? a positive deviance kind of thing ... perhaps not but it mangeable in the short term ...

[minh]

If you hold an authentic confidence in the group's skills, knowledge and general capacity, the next stage will arise from the process. Whatever it is. However incremental it will be what it is.

In fact they will be what they are. The process will produce pluralities to be assessed, experimented on, developed rather than a singular outcome.

The more we do it the better we do it. There's no end to the improvement we can make in being solvers of problems.

:)
minh

[Artichoke]

Re: Whatever it is. However incremental it will be what it is. In fact they will be what they are.

Minh this is a deliciously Seussian like response thank you ... it reminds me of Seussian sentiments along the lines of “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go.”

I am not sure that it is as well suited approach for those teachers and students who approach problem solving from this sometimes more satisfying and personal perspective ...

“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”

[minh]

I embraced the plurality of responses.

A full frontal assault is a technique applicable to some problems/troubles.

The Monty Python technique = "Run away, run away" = has its place.

And there are always subtleties to be explored.

A veritable continuum

:)
minh

[ailsa]

Thanks for the prompts Arti.
If I link it back to the earlier piece and consider Flore on cooperation and listening, and perhaps even privilige those with least voice... i would have to move to a shared endeavour for learning. Assisted rather than prescribed, piquing curiousity and enquiry.
And i am still left frustrated with education that's constrained by the limits on time, on who designs curriculum, and controls the assessments. And these factors whether in didactic learning or a PBL base continue with a history of learning as certification.
If I ignore certification, i risk an authentic education.
if I value authenticity in education, i risk the certification.
Am feeling trapped in the fun house.
And then i get prompted again to listen and play nicely and work cooperatively and even if still stuck in the fun house have i learnt about the things that make it less traumatising...and might one day lead to less entrapment, a soft revolution?
Maybe a shift in focus from content to process aaargh I am sick of being told this, but just maybe... it is relating thats involved.
How do i relate to this information, how do i relate with teachers and with peers...

[Amongla Imsong]

Hi Arti,

You have an interesting blog. Will come again :)

btw, thanks for blogrolling me.

[hall monitor]

How can students learn when this is happening in our schools:

http://detentionslip.org

[Graham Wegner]

Procrastination has cost me dearly once again - I've been thinking about this post and even crafted a comment right after Tony's reply but now the conversation has shifted to a different dimension. Here's what I had before Telstra pulled the plug on the Wegner household for five days:-

I like some of the ideas quoted by Tony but as school is an institution (how relevant an institution is another discussion) and has limitations in what it is able to offer its students. We are limited by our own teaching expertise (or lack of), our own institutional thinking, our class sizes and other factors too numerous to identify. These limits also include the requirement to assess student achievement in a comparative way - which means that "herding the goats" (to use a prior expression of yours) down a narrowish pre-determined pathway is the most time and energy efficient method for the average classroom teacher. Everyone who has tried to implement inquiry learning programs in their classroom/school will tell you that it takes much more work to do even to a satisfactory degree - it makes your lofty ideal look like the peak of Mount Kosciosko - climbable but only in ideal conditions. Those of us with institutional authority also have institutional responsibilities to work exactly what those in our charge have actually gained from our designed learning based on frameworks given to us by others with even greater institutional authority.

Look, I'll put my hand up and admit to being one of those teachers who have never worked in the "real world" and I struggle with the worth of what I do every day in the classroom. Reading other educators tends to cloud the waters even more - having one blissfully unaware "correct" method of imparting skills, knowledge and dare I say it, insight to students is much easier than grappling with what is the most authentic path to learning. Part of me wants to defend what teachers pursuing PBL / inquiry approaches are providing for their students while the other concedes that much of what is presented in the context of school is flawed on many levels. Still, it mirrors what we are as humans - school is in some ways a rough simulation of life, and we miss the point somewhat if it just becomes a simulation for work.

Much still to ponder as I spend the next two days workshopping with Kath Murdock - your post is a useful lense to examine her models and consequently, my and my colleagues' work through.

[Artichoke]

Thanks for the thinking Graham, and fret not about the way the comment thread meanders ... I have often wished blog comments were able to be rearranged ... inserted where they fit best ... rather than this tit for tat hierarchical sequence

I think you identify why blogging is useful in that it does allow us to imagine alternatives to day job experience which offer insignificant or false freedoms.

RE: we miss the point somewhat if it just becomes a simulation for work.

It probably is the point Graham ...PBL started out as a curriculum and pedagogical simulation for work ... it was only later that it was introduced to schools .... which is possibly where some of the tensions lie ...

• e.g. Problem-based learning began at McMaster University Medical School over 25 years ago. It has since been implemented in various undergraduate and graduate programs around the world. Additionally, elementary and secondary schools have adopted PBL. The PBL approach is now being used in a few community colleges as well.

If I look past questions around “who is framing the problems” ... I could/ should make a similar but different critique/post on “who is designing the process”

In the day job we encourage teachers to unpack all these different approaches to learning that others suggest they adopt.

We get them to identify the stages and purposes (learning outcome) in each inquiry learning, problem based learning, scientific investigation, statistical thinking, video gaming etc ... and then to align them with each other .... there is a simple example of this in Table 2 in something in A Thinking Curriculum in Curriculum Matters 2:2006 NZCER Press

Next we ask teachers to think about how students might understand with any clarity what they are doing when they are “going further” or “sorting out”.

And then how students might self assess how well they are doing this “going further” or “sorting out” stuff

And from there how students might determine what they need to do that might conceivably improve/ enhance their learning outcomes in each case.

It is a pretty powerful workshop experience for educators ... and in my experience most pedagogical approaches to inquiry or problem based learning collapse under this scrutiny from a students perspective.

And rather than leave them in a trough of despond we show them a way to change all this using a focus on student leraning outcomes ... but it still leaves me with a problem with the problem...