PROBLEM-BASED

LEARNING
Presented by:

Julie Todd
Cory Booth

what is it?

Problem-Based Learning )
Enrichment Curriculum

PBL
In Problem Based Learning (PBL), small groups of students are

presented with contextual situations and asked to define the

problem, decide what skills and resources are necessary to
investigate the problem and then pose possible solutions. (Duch,
Groh & Allen, 2001)

PBL courses start with the problems rather than with exposition of

disciplinary knowledge.

Students acquire knowledge skills and understanding through a

staged sequence of problems presented in sequence.

Overview: PBL Helps Students Develop Skills for Living in
a Knowledge-Based, Highly Technological Society

This traditional approach has

been criticised for a number of
reasons:

The old-school model of passively

learning facts and reciting them out of
context is no longer sufficient to prepare
students to survive in today's world.
Solving highly complex problems
requires that students have both
fundamental skills (reading, writing, and
math) and21st century skills (teamwork,
problem solving, research gathering,
time management, information
synthesizing, utilizing high tech tools).
With this combination of skills, students
become directors and managers of their
learning process, guided and mentored
by a skilled teacher.

These 21st century

skills include:
Personal and social responsibility
Planning, critical thinking, reasoning, and creativity strong
communication skills, both for interpersonal and presentation
needs
Cross-cultural understanding
Visualizing and decision making
Knowing how and when to use technology and choosing the
most appropriate tool for the task
"One of the major advantages of project work is that it makes
school more like real life. It's an in-depth investigation of a realworld topic worthy of children's attention and effort."
EDUCATION RESEARCHER SYLVIA CHARD

Why PBL

The old-school model of passively learning facts and reciting

them out of context is no longer sufficient to prepare
students to survive in today's world. Solving highly complex
problems requires that students have both fundamental
skills (reading, writing, and math) and21st century skills
(teamwork, problem solving, research gathering, time
management, information synthesizing, utilizing high tech
tools). With this combination of skills, students become
directors and managers of their learning process, guided and
mentored by a skilled teacher.

Knowledge is acquired in context and builds

on what is already known

These facets aid knowledge retention, add

interest and increase motivation to learn

Students continually explore their knowledge,

identify both their personal learning needs
and strategies required to address them. This
process helps to develop skills for life-long
learning

How does problem-based

learning work?
What instructors do:
- Develop real-world, complex and open-ended problems such as
might be faced in the workplace or daily life.
- Act as facilitators, making sure students are staying on track and
finding the resources they need.
- Raise questions to student groups that deepen the connections
they make among concepts.
- Strike a balance between providing direct guidance and
encouraging self-directed learning.
What students do:
- Address the problem, identifying what they need to learn in order
to develop a solution and where to look for appropriate learning
resources.
- Collaborate to gather resources, share and synthesize their
findings, and pose questions to guide further learning tasks for
the group.

Rational:

Utilize block schedule enrichment time to

implement a school wide PBL teaching model.
Incorporate reading, research, collaborative
learning process and presentation skills.
Each unit will be completed over a nine week
grading period.
The additional 30 minutes of study hall time
that is currently in 5th period will also be
partially used for PBL.
Teachers will use this time to send small
groups to the media center to conduct
research and work with ELA teachers in
developing research and writing skills.

Assignments:
A nine week PBL learning unit will be provided to
every teacher in the school. Teachers will provide
overview of the unit and grading structure. EVERY
TEACHER WILL ASSIGN A GRADE FOR THE PROJECT.
The projects will be graded and then submitted to
department chairs or administrators (judging
panel) who will then choose four BEST IN CLASS
projects. Those groups will receive a reward and
will be recognized on weekly announcements.

Note: All teachers that have 5th period planning will be provided a
5th period duty schedule that will require them to work 3 days /2
weeks of the month and 2 days 2 weeks of the month. This
equalizes the planning time for all teachers. All ELA teachers with
5th period planning will be assigned to the media center to assist

Problem-Based
Learning Student
Problem-based learning (PBL) is an exciting alternative to
traditional
classroom learning.
Perspective
With PBL, your teacher presents you with a problem, not lectures
or assignments or exercises. Since you are not handed "content",
your learning becomes active in the sense that you discover and
work with content that you determine to be necessary to solve the
problem.
In PBL, your teacher acts as facilitator and mentor, rather
than a source of "solutions."

Problem based learning will provide you with opportunities

to:
examine and try out what you know
discover what you need to learn
develop your people skills for achieving higher performance in
teams
improve your communications skills
state and defend positions with evidence and sound argument

Schedule Explanation
Block Curriculum:
10 minutes of every block class will be dedicated to EOC/SLO test prep.
The first 4 weeks of school will be used to review test taking skills and
applications
5th Period Curriculum:
Study hall time will be used to send students to media center to learn how
on conduct research, cite references and write papers
This time can also be used to allow students to make up test and for
organization
Planning Time Breakdown
Teachers that have 5th period planning will be required to have duty the
entire 5th period on Wednesdays. Mr. Nelloms and Mr. Harwell will provide
other 5th period duty schedules.
A 5th period planning schedule will be provided to all teachers at the
beginning of each semester
All ELA and some other designated teachers will be scheduled to be in the
media center to assist students in conducting research, citing references
and writing rough drafts and research papers.
All other teachers will be assigned cafeteria and hall monitoring duties.

The case serves as a

stimulus for learning

How do I get started with

PBL?
Develop problems that:
- Capture students interest by relating to real-world issues.
- Draw on students previous learning and experience.
- Integrate content objectives with problem-solving skills.
- Require a cooperative, multi-staged method to solve.
- Necessitate that students do some independent research
to gather all information relevant to the problem.
Design assessment tools that:
- Account for process (e.g. research, collaboration) as well
as content skills.
- Are closely tied to course learning objectives.
- Balance individual and group performance.

PBL Units:
Water
Access to clean water
Transporting clean water
Social/economic impacts of clean
water
My water footprint
Urban Infrastructure
Transportation
Underground utilities
Building design
Public spaces

Cyberspace
Secure e-commerce
Social media
Ethics/responsibility
Hacking/spying
Personalized Learning
Digital learning
Video training
Co-operative/peer learning
Personalized education

To Implement You Will

Get

Professional learning
PPT for first class (introduction)
Assignment sheet
Rubric with grading outline
Weekly guides
Video Links (in weekly guides)

Deliverable
Objectives

Research
Research paper
Presentation
Physical Model
Conceptual Model

Implementation Plan/
Curriculum Map:
Week 1:
PPT- outline of requirements, hand out assignment,
group students
Introductory PPT to incorporate:
Engineering design process
Weekly outline objectives
Rubric
Examples
Assignment objectives

Weekly PPT to incorporate:

New information video
Additional learning objectives
Thought appetizers

Implementation Plan/
Curriculum Map:
Week 2-5:
design
Week 6:
Week 7:
Week 8:

Research and build models use

process to facilitate
Collaborate
Write papers/complete models
Finalize paper/models rehearse for
presentation (facilitator

conference)
Week 9:
Present findings (final projects due)

Week 1 Curriculum Map:

Show Introductory PowerPoint

Insure that students understand design process (check for understanding)
Create student groups
No more than 4 per group
Assign member responsibilities (use personal strengths)
Leader
Writer
Builder
Researcher
Communicator
Share contact information
Discuss the project, process and explain why
-inquiry based learning
-real world skills and application
-problem solving skills
-application of content learning
-solving problems using a process cyclical way to solving problems
-Student controlled learning
-Exposure to societys Grand Challenges

Weeks 2-5 Curriculum Map:

Research phase critical for students to be successful in PBL and

all content areas ALL WORK SHOULD BE PUT IN A
COLLABORATIVE NOTEBOOK (might be good use for white
binders and dividers purchased last year) Notebooks will
remain in the classroom
Have students map out the first steps in the design process Use
PBL modeling provided below (This is not a 30 minute processstudent groups will need take turns going to media center to
conduct research and consult with ELA teachers on how to
research, document and communicate findings)
Students will need to think critically and explore all of the
possibilities then note limitations
Impacts of decisions should be discussed throughout the design
phase
Create design for model (digital or written format) and create

Week 6 Curriculum Map:

Collaborate and start build on model

model and paper will be presented to
class and potentially a judging panel
Complete rough draft on research
paper

Week 7 Curriculum Map:

Complete build on model model should:
Detail the solution for the problem
Exemplify the manufacturing/construction
process
Show impact of the groups solution
Work in at least a rudimentary fashion- must
be functional
Research paper
Formal paper with citations (MLA format)
Correlate to presentation
Show solution to problem based on research
Written in template provided
Must come from peer reviewed journals
Must be discussed with facilitator (teacher

Weeks 8 & 9 Curriculum

Map:
Week 8:
Finalize paper
Rehearse for presentation
Week 9:
Project presentations
Grades entered

Note: Students will be graded using a standard rubric

provided. The best project for each class will be submitted to
a panel. The selection process should be equally divided
among facilitator and students. The panel will select the top 4
projects based on the solutions presented. The top projects
chosen will receive a party at lunch and recognition
throughout the school. It would also be a great idea to reward
the facilitator (teacher) of the 4 groups chosen. We should
also pursue obtaining an opportunity for these students to

Grading
Every student will receive a grade for the project in
his or her 5th period class
The Grade should be added under Assessment During
Learning
Students will be graded using a standard rubric provided. The
best project for each class will be submitted to a panel. The
selection process should be equally divided among
facilitator and students. The panel will select the top 4
projects based on the solutions presented. The top projects
chosen will receive a party at lunch and recognition
throughout the school. It would also be a great idea to
reward the facilitator (teacher) of the 4 groups chosen. We
should also pursue obtaining an opportunity for these
students to present their projects to either someone from

THE PBL TUTORIAL

PROCESS
Key steps in the PBL
tutorial process

The PBL process is tightly structured and

contains a number of key steps
1.

The PBL tutorial:

Typically consists of a small number of

students (ideally between 6-10)

Is facilitated by one or more faculty

tutors who guide the process without
contributing directly to the solution of
the problem or being the primary source
of information
Meeting two times a week for two or
three hours per session
Completing a case in two or three
sessions

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Case presentation
Identifying key
information
Generating and
ranking hypotheses
Generating an
enquiry strategy
Defining learning
objectives
Reporting back
Integrating new
knowledge

Water Unit I

Essential Question: How does my water consumption

impact my world?

It is a simple fact of life: we need water. Water is

essential to life on earth. We need it to drink, keep
clean, generate power, and grow the food we eat. We
are using up our planets fresh water faster than it can
be replenished naturally. You can make a difference by
improving the use of water in your home, school, and
community.

Project/Challenge: Improve your home, school, or

community use of water.

How to create effective PBL

scenarios

Learning objectives likely to be defined by the students after studying the scenario
should be consistent with the faculty learning objectives

Problems should be appropriate to the stage of the curriculum and the level of the
students' understanding

Scenarios should have sufficient intrinsic interest for the students or relevance to
future practice

Basic science should be presented in the context of a clinical scenario to encourage

integration of knowledge

Scenarios should contain cues to stimulate discussion and encourage students to

seek explanations for the issues presented

The problem should be sufficiently open, so that discussion is not curtailed too early
in the process

Scenarios should promote participation by the students in seeking information from

various learning resources

CHECKLIST
PROBLEM
CONSTRUCTION

FOR

Is the content of the problem geared to students' prior knowledge?

Is there a clear connection with one or more of the objectives of the block?
Is the problem sufficiently complex to offer cues for initial discussion and for
generating learning issues?
Is the problem structured in such a way that it offers cues for discussion in the
group?
Has the problem been formulated clearly and, if possible, does it offer links with
professional practice?
Is the problem multidisciplinary and is clear to students?
Does the length of the problem enable inclusion of all the relevant information
that is needed for identifying learning issues and does the problem not contain
superfluous irrelevant information?
Is the available time sufficient for studying the learning issues?
Is there sufficient time available for reporting on all the learning issues?
Does the block offer sufficient variety in learning activities, i.e. does it include
different types and formats of problems?
Is the number of problems geared to the number of group meetings in the block?
Has a schedule been drawn up that specifies which problems are to be discussed
when?
Which problems should be tackled in a specific sequence?