[Efstathoula Vangeli]

1)Set a goal
Except from the obvious goal to solve a problem, you have to identify other outcomes such as research and collaboration in order for the students to have a complete vision of the process and to stay focus on it. At the same time, you should select a way of assessment, so you can estimate how close you get to fulfilling your goal. The most famous ways of assessment are self/peer-evaluation forms, group contacts and learning reflections.
2) Planning
Based on student brainstorming, you have to choose a problem which will be real, complex and related to your subject. Keep in mind the goals that you have already set so you can create procedures that achieve those results. Your final “strategy” has to be interesting, motivating and tailor-made for the needs and abilities of the students.
3)Controlled trial
Odds are that most of the students will not be familiar with PBL or how to solve a problem correctly. You can introduce an easier problem at first so they can get used to the process in general, for example how to collaborate with one another, to understand the goals and be punctual with timelines.
4)Research
The part of research begins with pinpointing what students already know, what they need to learn more about and where they have to look. To make this simpler, you can express each problem as a research question, divide the students into groups and assign to each question to them. Alternatively, the groups can communicate with each other and decide among themselves who takes what, based on their abilities and their current knowledge. Also, don’t forget that throughout the research time, the questions that you have set in the beginning will be altered in relation to new information that may occur from students’ research.
5)Presentation
After research, it’s time for the students to display their discoveries and to help the rest of the class to understand their process of work and their conclusions. The way of visualization of the results it’s completely up to you and the students and can be a presentation, a diagram, a poster and so on.
6)Assessment
As the title of the step states, you have finally to evaluate the students’ results. You can have reflections filled out by the students about what they learned through this process, in the beginning, half-way and at the end, so you can keep track of their progress. As far as meaningful participation is concerned, use rubrics to make sure that students understood the problem, the methods that were used, the research and finally, how they reached a solution.

[Author]

Posts