EdTech 542 Week 2: Explore Projects & PBL in Diverse Classrooms

Although it was difficult to find an article that addressed diversity in a PBL classroom in great depth, here is one that I stumbled upon that seems to touch upon the issue: Effectiveness of PBL in Diverse Classrooms: http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v11n1/ostrosky.html.  I certainly hope more analytic research and case studies are carried out as PBL becomes an increasingly attractive choice for teachers and schools.  This article set out to discuss the benefits of PBL in a classroom rich with diverse learning needs and cultural, economic, and linguistic backgrounds.  The researchers, Sallee Beneke & Michaelene M. Ostrosky, based their findings on interviews of preschool teachers after professional development on the Project Approach.  Although this age group is younger than those I have taught, the benefits of PBL are applicable to any diverse population. Acclaim for this approach includes:

• A teacher can find out students’ interests and strengths more easily.
• A teacher can pull out student to offer additional help to students with extra learning needs.
• Students are able to achieve success through different methods of knowledge representation.
• Students can take on a “teacher role” (which hints at reciprocal or peer teaching).
• Pride in sharing knowledge with peers when they might not have done before (improved self-esteem).
• Hands-on projects increased the attention of otherwise distracted learners.
• Less behavior problems are reported because students are working independently (more so than as a whole group) and with great focus.
• PBL "increased [the] interest, motivation, and attention span of diverse learners in their classrooms."
• It supports language development in ELL learners, as vocabulary is used greatly in conversations about the topic.
• It provides opportunities for teachers and paraeducators to collaborate and find points of entry/application to a students’ IEP in a natural way.
• Information learned becomes more committed to students’ memory. (“Their interest in the topic motivated children to look closely and notice more.”)

With these benefits in mind, I believe PBL is most certainly in line with my teaching style.  If implemented correctly, it’s an efficient means of instruction that’s naturally conducive to differentiation.  Everyone is accountable for their own learning on their own trajectory, and every student can experience success.

Post to Class Discussion Board: Explore Sample Projects

Common Features of PBL Examples:

The common features among PBL projects I explored included strong student involvement, authentic/real-world connections, interdisciplinary education, peer teaching, and organizational components that helped structure time, space, and content.  The aim of all PBL education is student-directed inquiry, therefore each unit begins with an “attention-grabber” of sorts – a scenario, simulation, or current event topic that piques the students’ interest and gets them to ask questions.  They are meant to be inspired to inquire.  These attention-grabbers or stage-setters typically have a community connection to allow for a real-world context and sense of authenticity.  The students feel like they are solving real problems and bringing about real change.

Most PBL units appear to start with a general level of breadth and go more in-depth throughout the duration of the project, with the ultimate aim of presenting at some sort of “exhibition,” in which students share with the public their collection of information, opinions/positions, and process of inquiry. The quality, professional-looking products always include technology in some way, shape, or form.  Many creative projects also added an entrepreneurial element to promote activism, fund-raising, or competition.  Also, the best PBL units I explore included students’ own written components as well as a collaborative group multimedia presentations.  That is because PBL education relies heavily on team-based learning, reciprocal instruction, and peer critique.

In all PBL units I explored, preliminary organization was a key component.  The planning time appeared “front-loaded” in that the teachers fleshed out the entire structure of his/her unit in advance of presenting it.  This included, in most cases, collaborating among various subjects in teacher planning sessions to establish timelines, comparing/aligning state standards in their subject areas, creating rubrics collaboratively, creating exemplars, designing “attention-grabbers” to direct students’ focus to specific areas of their PBL “issue” along the way, and ensuring there were enough student-friendly resources (speakers, artifacts, websites, field trips, experiments, simulations, etc.) to maintain interest and allow for authentic data collection.  This high level of pre-planning allows for the teacher to introduce the entire structure/sequence of the process from the outset as well as keep his/her students on target (time-wise and content-wise) throughout the project.  He/she would have an arsenal of “breadcrumbs”* or clues to keep the students in a productive workflow. This also places the teacher in a role of facilitator/mentor versus expert/information disseminator.  It’s important to note that many of the “better” PBL units I explored were flexible to adapt to a student-guided timeline.  Many teachers mentioned in their blogs and reflective notes that their projects took much longer than they had anticipated, but that the benefits were worthwhile because the students delved deeper as they needed to and as their interests led them to.

Another facet of organization I observed was a plethora of concept mapping at the heart of both teacher and student planning.  In fact, this PBL tutorial was particularly helpful to me in showing interdisciplinary and topical connections within one PBLunit: http://pbln.imsa.edu/model/tutorials/unitdesign/.  These types of concept maps help students flesh out what they know and need to know to address the guiding question of their inquiry.  Establishing background knowledge and systematically delineating further information required is a hallmark of all collaborative group work in PBL units of study.

The use of rubrics was another universal theme in the PBL examples I explored.  These rubrics were used not only by the students in their personal evaluations, but also as a guideline for productive peer critiquing. Evaluating and revising are common features because teachers know students don’t learning things perfectly the first time; they need multiple opportunities to experience a concept. Rubrics were also used by the teacher for formative and summative evaluation, as they universal enough to allow for and cater to various methods of presentation.

PBL Example of Study:

After narrowing down the PBL topic I planned to work with throughout this course, I encountered this useful websitehttp://ete.cet.edu/modules/modules.html.  (It is a link from http://eelink.net, the North American Association for Environmental Education website.) I found it helpful in its categorization of global environmental issues that can be addressed with PBL classroom activities.  In each case they offer a “scenario” or problematic/perplexing situation along with links to resources and facts.  Although these thematic modules aren’t quite fleshed out PBL units in and of themselves, I found them to be a very useful launching pad for designing a multidisciplinary PBL unit on invasive species.  Also, I wanted to share with you all this embedded link that was of particular interest to me in the early development stage of my PBL unit of study: http://ete.cet.edu/gcc/?/pbl_welcome/. Perhaps you will find it (and its workflow diagram) useful going into next week’s assignment.

As it’s been a hot topic in the Bermudian news this year, I’ve decided to center my PBL unit on the topic of lionfish as an invasive species.  This allows for a variety of entry points such as science, math, business studies, government, and language arts.  There were several PBL examples I looked at in brainstorming facets of my own unit.  I specifically sought out ecology PBLs, population-control PBLs, and invasive species PBLs. Two that caught my eye were: “The Case of the Killer Bees” (http://www.pbl.uci.edu/winter2000/bio1a.html) and “Oh Deer! Do we have a problem?”: (http://wveis.k12.wv.us/teach21/public/project/Guide.cfm?upid=3382&tsele1=3&tsele2=129)

What I liked about those two PBL units were the extension opportunities driven by giving students or student groups a professional identity to work from (e.g. USDA inspector, fisherman/woman, historian, tourism director, Biology student, and a SCUBA diver/wildlife activist).  These roles help the students refine their approach to tackling the plethora of information they will encounter because they will naturally seek out information that appeals to someone of that profession/perspective.  This then leads nicely into a “think-pair-share” opportunity.  This also allows for authentic field trips and guest speakers that align with the students’ chosen “identities”.

Another aspect I hope to include in my PBL unit is entrepreneurial activism.  I was particularly intrigued by the professional appearance and in-depth content of the Calendars project which was a feature of the PBL unit “Save the Beaches” (http://learningin2025.wikispaces.com/PBL+Samples).  I would like to adapt this idea to having my students design and create an informative and activism-inspired product to sell on Exhibition Night as an authentic fund-raising opportunity.  This might be a bumper sticker, t-shirt, classroom poster, or calendar.  At this point in my brainstorming process, I think this could go along with (and in addition to) a group’s multimedia presentation, but perhaps that would be too much!

Another PBL focus I enjoyed pondering about was the big-picture notion of “Design”, as in “form following function”.  “Design is the creation of a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system” (Dictionary.com).  I would like my students to think about designing predators (features of the lionfish as top of food chair), designing purposeful objects (traps or deterrents), designing ecological solutions (fishing bounties, restaurants serving lionfish), designing persuasive arguments, designing appealing publications/products, and designing the structure and framework to tackle all of those designs!  I realize this is perhaps stepping back perhaps too far from the topic at hand, but I feel emphasizing the design process would make my students feel more in control of their outcomes and more reflective of their interconnection to the world around them.  I was inspired to reflect on those goals through the PBL unit: “How Insects’ Design Solves Architectural Problems”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dwcIYLN2Y3c. The level of inquiry and product development (using technology) that took place in this PBL unit really inspired me.

I look forward to engaging in more research not only into my chosen PBL topic (lionfish as an invasive species) but also into structuring a PBL unit using that topic.  Two other sites I encountered that I believe will be helpful include:

• http://www.learnerstogether.net/home/2007/11/18/learning-ecology-using-problem-based-learning.html.  This is a reflective teaching blog by Mariam Mathew on the instruction of ecology through PBL.
• http://pbln.imsa.edu/model/tutorials/unitdesign/slide_12.html. This is a report on the strategies of teaching and learning in General Ecologyas presented by Feng Jinchao in The China Papers 2004. I found the “concept map of an ecosystem topic” on pg. 63 to be a helpful planning framework. Perhaps each student group could focus on a “branch” of the connections web, or there could be an expert within each group.

Thanks in advance for passing along any resources you might encounter in your own exploration, and I will aim to do the same.

*http://www.edutopia.org/stw-project-based-learning-best-practices-new-tech-video