P rojec t

Problem-Based Learning in

Astronomy and Physics

Summer School Leicester 2003

Personnel

Derek Raine Project Director

Sarah Symons Project Manager

Sean Lawrence Local Management Committee

Lewis Elton - UCLRanald Macdonald -Sheffield HallamJim Collett - Hertfordshire

Today’s programme

1. Experiencing PBL – a lightening tour

2. PBL in Physics

3. Let’s start writing

PBL: Experience It Yourself

Since she took office, Secretary of the Interior and Water Master Gale Norton has attempted to settle competing demands for Colorado River water.

photo of Gale Norton from www.lvrj.com

1. Read the letter to Gale Norton from the Living Rivers Foundation

Write in your own words a sentence explaining the central problem(s) facing Secretary Norton.

2. As a group list the main stakeholders in the Colorado River

Experience it yourself: The Wars of the West

Experience it yourself: The Wars of the West

1. Read the letter to Gale Norton from the Living Rivers Foundation

Write in your own words a sentence explaining the central problem(s) facing Secretary Norton.

2. As a group list the main stakeholders in the Colorado River

The concept of learning issueslearning issues is central to PBL. It encourages students to think for themselves about what they know and what they don’t know about an issue. It helps identify questions

for further research.On page 3 of the handout,

list learning issues for a stakeholder group…..

Learning Issues

What is PBL?What is PBL?

What is PBL?

“The principal idea behind PBL is that the starting point for learning should be a problem, a query, or a puzzle that the learner wishes to solve.”Boud, D. (1985) PBL in perspective. In “PBL in Education

for the Professions,” D. J. Boud (ed); p. 13.

“…careful inspection of methods which are permanently successful in formal education…will reveal that they depend for their efficiency upon the fact that they go back to the type of situation which causes reflection out of school in ordinary life. They give pupils something to do, not something to learn; and if the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking, or the intentional noting of connections; learning naturally results.”

John Dewey (1916)

---a bluffer’s guide:

Prior knowledge

Context

Cognitive theories………

Learning theories

PBL can be related to all

Bloom’s cognitive levels

Evaluation - make a judgment based on criteria

Synthesis - produce something new from component parts

Analysis - break material into parts to see interrelationships

Application - apply concept to a new situation

Comprehension - explain, interpret

Knowledge - remember facts, concepts, definitions

Six facets of understanding and their criteria:Explanation - accurate, coherent, justified, systematic,

predictive

Interpretation - meaningful, insightful, significant, illustrative, illuminating

Application - effective, efficient, fluent, adaptive, graceful

Perspective - credible, revealing, insightful, plausible, unusual

Empathy - sensitive, open, receptive, perceptive, tactful

Self-knowledge - self-aware, meta-cognitive, self-adjusting, reflective, wise

From G. Wiggins & J. McTighe. 1998. Understanding by Design.

Understanding ‘understanding’

The common features of PBL

• Learning is initiated by a problem.• Problems are based on complex, real-world

situations.• All information needed to solve problem is not

initially given.• Students identify, find, and use appropriate

resources.• Students work in permanent groups.• Learning is active, integrated, cumulative, and

connected.

PBL: The ProcessPresentation of Problem

Organize ideas and prior knowledge(What do we know?)

Pose questions (What dowe need to know?)

Assign responsibility for questions; discuss resources

Research questions; summarize; analyze findings

Reconvene, report on research;

Integrate new Information;Refine questions

Resolution of Problem;(How did we do?)

Next stage of the problem

Groups and facilitation

Floating Facilitator model

Medical School Model

• Eliciting students' reasoning process

• Making connections

• Defining terminology

• Asking open-ended questions

• Tolerating silence

Facilitation

Learning environments:

subject knowledge and skills student prior experience and goals the assessment regime the community context

Align!

for staff

for students

Skills Used Frequently by Physics Bachelorsin Selected Employment Sectors, 1994

Source: AIP Education and Employment Statistics Division

• High level of communication skills• Ability to define problems, gather and

evaluate information, develop solutions• Team skills -- ability to work with others• Ability to use all of the above to address

problems in a complex real-world setting

Requirements for Graduate Skills

Quality Assurance in Undergraduate Education (1994)Wingspread Conference, ECS, Boulder, CO.

• Make research-based learning the standard.

• Build inquiry-based learning throughout the four years.

• Link communication skills and course work.

• Use information technology effectively.• Cultivate a sense of community.

And how to get them

Boyer Commission, 1998

In other words….

….problem-based learning