Bible Students

Thoughts on “Strategies and Models for Teachers” by Eggen and Kauchak (chapter 8)

Problem-based learning begins with a problem, and the process for solving the problem is the learning done by the students. The students will not succeed if the teacher does not allow them to branch out on their own. However, if the teacher provides too much, the individuals will not be able to learn, as the teacher’s information will stunt their ability to grow out on their own. 

Designing experiments and problems for the students to solve is a difficult method. The teacher must first come up with a reason for the problem-based problem. Developing strategies and becoming a self-learner are essential lessons of the students, which must be developed through problem-based learning. Younger students must use more concrete and personal examples. Older students may be more abstract and less personal, but younger must be more hands-on and up-front. 

The teacher must have materials ready. The materials available will determine the size of the groups. Small groups require more equipment. The groups should be diverse, and should not depend on the work of one person to solve the problem for the whole team. 

Problem-based learning happens in four steps. The students must first acknowledge the problem and assess what information will be needed. Second, they must attempt to come up with a plan for solving the problem. Next, they must faithfully implement the plan. Finally, the teacher and the students must evaluate how the plan functioned and what came from it. If the implementation of the plan did not solve the problem, the teacher may need to help them get back on the right track with a new plan, which would then need to be implemented and evaluated again. Making sure the students are going in the right direction, in order to make sure the rest of the class lessons continue as planned and on track, is important, to avoid time waste on a large-scale. 

The teachers must provide small experience in solving problems before they are allowed to go off on their own. This may be done through a whole-class presentation where the teacher allows the students to answer questions which gradually solve the problem, in order to do a whole-class problem-based learning lesson. Then, once the students have some experience, they should be allowed to go off on their own. Almost all textbook-based math problems are well defined, and so the first step of assessing the problem is rather simple. However, many real-world issues are not well-defined, and getting to the solution may be far more open-ended. 

The teacher may observe a group struggling, and allow them to attempt to conquer the struggle on their own. After seeing them unsuccessfully solve the minor issue, it may be best to intervene and help them to demonstrate the correct answer in order to keep the lesson moving. This should only be done after the group continues to move down the incorrect path. Questions can be used to move the class in the right direction. Asking them to explain how they know what they discovered is helpful for them to develop their own cognitive paths to the correct answers. 

The meaningfulness of the learning is gained through the struggle of finding the answers on your own. If the students are simply given the answers without having to study it for themselves, they will not learn nearly as well. 

Inquiry is a great way of furthering problem-based learning. The students must be willing and familiar with asking questions. Younger students may have a much more difficult time coming up with hypotheses and inquiries. If the students desire to measure something, they may need help learning how to measure that thing. In science projects, measuring evaporation may be done through the amount of water missing from a test tube, measured by either a scale or a beaker. The students may need to be given the path to carrying out their hypotheses and inquiries. 

Asking a student to explain their learning will demonstrate the paths they have created in their mind. Asking questions to students in order to synthesize the inquiry stage may be helpful in younger or more inexperienced students. The teacher may ask questions to the class in order to help them to see what a good inquiry looks like, while also allowing them to ask questions and form hypotheses through the process. When the teacher asks questions, the students should use their responses as a basis for formulating a hypothesis. 

In many cases, inquiries about the problems may not lead explicitly to an answer. Many questions do not lead to an answer, and so students must be reminded to not assume an answer based on simple observations, just as they would not do in normal life. They must take careful observations in order to understand the situation, rather than making broad assumptions. Life is not cut and dry, and this is a secondary lesson which can be learned through problem-based learning. This is not likely to change in one day the critical thinking structures of the students, but it is a start.

Using the inquiry process can greatly improve the ability of students to permanently learn the methods of finding the solution in a problem, rather than simply understanding what the solution is. As with the rest of learning, the learning is truly in the process, rather than in the answer. This is one of the greatest differences between old and new methods of learning math. Where before the methods including memorizing multiplication tables, today’s learning is how to actually multiply the numbers. The old way only understood the solution, but the new method understands the way to get to the solution, which is far more valuable. 

Using inquiry should be very concrete with younger learners. Teachers should be able to cover a few questions or problems well, rather than covering many situations superficially. Teachers should go into depth for their examples, as far as the students need them to continue, in order to have the greatest amount of response and retention from the example, rather than covering many examples without actually learning the process for discovering the solution.