Problem-Based Learning in Astronomy and Physics Summer School Leicester 2003.
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Transcript of Problem-Based Learning in Astronomy and Physics Summer School Leicester 2003.
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