Venturing into problem-based learning with everyone's least favorite 9th grade class took us into uncharted waters. Although we were aware of its value in professional teacher education, we knew little about the possibilities of problem-based learning with teenagers. Bolstered by the successes reported by Stepien and Gallagher (1993) and supported by a colleague whose 9th grade social studies class agreed to give it a try, we set sail.
- Begin with a problem.
- Ensure that the problem connects with the students' world.
- Organize the subject matter around the problem, not around the disciplines.
- Give students the major responsibility for shaping and directing their own learning.
- Use small teams as the context for most learning.
- Require students to demonstrate what they have learned through a product or a performance.
Begin with a Problem
Rather than give over the entire course to problem-based learning, we decided to “post-hole,” or insert, a problem into the regular program (Stepien and Gallagher 1993). The course was one in Global Studies; the unit, Tradition and Change; the theme, The Family. The problem came from the classroom edition of the Wall Street Journal (“Case Study,” 1993): You are a marriage counselor with an appointment to meet Betty and Bob Stevens.... They have been married seven years. Betty is a regional manager for a health supplies company. She has been promoted three times since she joined the firm; the most recent promotion was about 13 months ago. Bob is a reporter for a local newspaper, who hopes to move to a larger paper after another year or two of experience. The couple has one child, Shawn, age 6.Bob began seeing a psychologist a year ago after becoming depressed and noticing the number of family arguments had increased. Betty can't identify a specific problem, but feels their marriage has certainly taken a turn for the worse over the past year. How can you help this couple?
Connect with Your Students' World
The problem selected has two characteristics that we considered essential. First, it is authentic in that it connects to the “larger social context within which the students live” (Newmann and Wehlage 1993). Second, it is rooted in the subject matter of the curriculum; in this case, the study of tradition and change as they affect families.
For us, it was important that the problem address a social issue of historical and contemporary interest. In no way did we want our work to be construed as group counseling or therapy. Problem-based learning is a mechanism for allowing students to come to grips with significant academic subject matter.
After introducing the problem, we divided students into small groups that we thought would work well together. The seven project groups included from two to four members. In grappling with the limited information provided, students disagreed about reasons for the family's problem. Several determined that the couple did not spend enough time together. As one boy heatedly informed his group, “He's a newspaper reporter. They have to chase the news wherever it is.” Others were convinced it was a simple matter of jealousy: Bob envied his wife's success. And, without any tangible information, several students pegged 6-year-old Shawn as the source of the problem.
- What do you argue about?
- How much time do you spend together alone?
- Are you still in love?
- Do your arguments concern Shawn? Is he afraid when you argue?
- How much money do you each make?
During the next class, we had intended to spend only a few minutes listening to students justifying their choices, but nearly a half hour later, hands were still waving for the chance to share one last question.
Next, we introduced a three-step problem-solving process suggested by Stepien, Gallagher, and Workman (1993): What do we know? What do we need to know? What are we going to do? In addition to serving as an instructional scaffold from which students might make sense of the situation, the questions enabled us to help them separate facts from value judgments, speculate about causes and effects, evaluate possible actions, and the like.
The students were attentive, active participants. Later, when asked how the class members had demonstrated effort, one girl replied, “We thought!” As teachers, however, we ended the day dissatisfied. We had succumbed to the tyranny of time, urging students to move along before they were fully ready. In retrospect, it occurred to us that: (1) breaking the school day into six or seven 45-minute periods is not conducive to in-depth discussions; and (2) facilitating the problem-solving process requires honing our skill in asking questions and probing students' responses.
Organize Subject Matter Around the Problem
In problem-based learning, the purpose of the problem is to motivate students to learn and provide a real-world context for examining the issues involved. Certainly, the initial brainstorming evoked enthusiasm and speculation, but little enlightenment. Providing students with a range of learning resources, we hoped, would enable them to shed more light on the problem.
- Betty has the larger salary and is in line for promotion to the national office.
- Bob's current job offers no opportunity for advancement, and he has not received any responses to resumes that he has sent out.
- They have a new house with a big mortgage.
- Betty is extremely active in community affairs during her spare time (“Case Study,” 1993).
After we introduced these details, the students were quick to recognize that Betty seemed to hold all the power. As one girl summed it up: Betty has the big job, makes the most money, drives the best car, does all the traveling, and is out all the time. Bob stays home, minds Shawn, and is depressed.
In their discussion, students called upon a broad range of information, not just from the case description but from their personal experiences as well. Surely these were not the same students who struggled to remember even the simplest information in their regular social studies classes.
Second, we invited a psychologist and a counselor to the classroom to discuss their jobs in general and reflect about the Stevens's situation, in particular. To prepare for the psychologist's visit, each group answered questions on a visitor focus sheet: who is coming and why, how is the visitor important to us, and what do we want to tell her and ask about the problem (Center for Gifted Education 1993).
Although we often invite visitors to our classrooms, this time students and visitor were linked by common ground. The students recognized and were eager to benefit from the psychologist's experience and expertise. They asked how she viewed the problem and what she would suggest. They discussed depression and its many forms. They also raised questions about her own work in schools: “Did you ever deal with suicide?” “Is it hard not to let your emotions get involved?”
The counselor's visit went equally well. In fact, several weeks later, students still referred to the “full balloon,” an analogy the counselor used to describe feelings. When he named the location of his feelings (his balloon) as being in his chest and stomach, several students jumped in and added “throat and knees” as places where they often sense feelings. The counselor suggested that Bob Stevens's balloon was so full (his feelings were so overwhelming) that it would be hard for him to address the problem until he could “deflate the balloon.” One student blurted out, “We have to collapse the balloon and not him.” We were talking about the Stevenses, but the students were thinking about themselves.
Empower Students as Learners
One of the dilemmas we faced with problem-based learning was that, obviously, our students were not totally responsible for directing their own learning. After all, we selected the problem and the initial learning resources. Still, within the confines of the general problem, students set a learning agenda and decided how to pursue it. Some chose to probe the sources of stress in family life; others examined changing family structures; still others compiled statistics on two-earner families. The resources we provided served only as springboards to lift students from simplistic reactions to more complex conversations and conclusions about how the changing roles of men and women can affect modern family life.
Later, many of the students told us that they had shared the problem and their responses to it with parents and friends. Obviously, they were checking out their own thinking, seeking affirmation. Clearly, this problem had struck a chord.
Use Small Teams for Most Learning
While the small team was not the only learning forum in our problem-based learning unit, it was the main one. We assembled the whole class for the two visitors and, from time to time, gathered as a class to debrief the work done to that point.
This particular class had not had much experience working in small groups. Would students listen to, and show appreciation for, one another's contributions? Would they stay on task? Would they share responsibility for a group product? No doubt students need important skills to work effectively in groups, but we suspect that, in the context of the total learning environment, these skills are considerably less important than a good problem. One student's comment seemed to summarize the prevailing feeling about the small group discussions: Everyone's learning together.... If someone doesn't understand, you're in a group. I mean they'll usually explain it to you more. No one's left out. Everyone gets the message and gets what you're doing.
Have Students Demonstrate Their Learning
From the outset, we told students that they would be required to demonstrate what they had learned about the changing nature of family life. Specifically, each group had two choices. They could compose a letter to the Stevenses, offering advice based on what they had learned during the project, or individual students could play the role of a marriage counselor in a meeting with the couple. When our original plan to have a married couple act the part of Bob and Betty went awry, we asked for volunteers to role-play the troubled couple. Of those who offered, three, according to the regular teacher, had previously been unwilling to participate in any sort of role-playing activity.
How did the students do? In demonstrating their learning, they revealed a seriousness of purpose; a knowledge of relevant social concepts (such as spousal and parental responsibilities, gender issues, sharing and compromise); and, intriguingly, some knowledge of, and interest in, the skills of counseling.
What Did We Learn?
To be sure, problem-based learning was a change of pace—but was it anything else? What are the standards by which we can judge it?
The five standards for authentic instruction suggested by Newmann and Wehlage (1993) are an excellent place to begin: Is the emphasis upon higher-order thinking? Is the stress upon in-depth knowledge? Is the subject matter closely connected to questions of the human condition? Is the inquiry focused and coherent? Are teachers and students committed to mutual respect, strong effort, and good performance?
Our sense is that the approach helps to shape the learning environment around these standards of authentic instruction. We observed highly motivated, engaged young people eager to share their thoughts about the problem, both inside and outside of the classroom. One student wondered, “So what do you teachers think of this way of teaching?” and then immediately answered her own question: “This way you get to know your students better. You get to make sure they know what they're doing. You know if they understand.”
If this is what problem-based learning can look like with a challenging 9th grade class and teachers inexperienced with the approach, we wonder what its other possibilities might be.
