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Problem-Based Learning: An Inquiry Approach

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A step-by-step guide for teaching your students to think critically and solve complex problems! Problem-based learning expert John Barell troubleshoots the PBL process for teachers, drawing from practical classroom experience. Step-by-step procedures make this remarkably effective teaching model accessible and highly doable for all teachers, from beginners to veterans. This standards-based, teacher-friendly second edition of the author′s popular PBL guide

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1998

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About the author

John Barell

15 books5 followers
John Barell is a national and international consultant to schools interested in teaching inquiry, critical thought and reflection.

A native New Yorker, Barell has sailed to Antarctica as part of Operation Deepfreeze to explore that continent based upon his meetings and correspondences with Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd. After Antarctica, he became an educator in New York City public high schools, then at Montclair State University in teacher education and world literature (now Professor Emeritus). Subsequently (2000-2007), he was a consultant at The American Museum of Natural History where he fostered networks of inquiry among science and social studies educators.

Currently, he is researching the various ways we assess the quality and improvement of students’ performances with 21st century skills: inquiry, problem solving, critical/creative thought and technological proficiency. The first completed report on this project, How Do We Know They’re Getting Better? Assessment for 21st Century Minds, K-8 (Corwin), was published January, 2012. His focus now is on those who teach at the high school level.

Sailing to Antarctica has served as his model for inquiry: starting with a dream and a passion leading to explorations of new territories, both physical, spiritual, educational and creative.

Barell is author of these publications about Antarctica: Quest for Antarctica—A Journey of Wonder and Discovery (memoir, 2011, ebook); Surviving Erebus—An Antarctic Adventure on board HMS Erebus and Terror (YA novel, 2008; 2011 ebook) and “Twenty Below,” an award winning story published by Boys’ Life and Boys’ Life Anthology.

He is also the author of these professional books: Did You Ever Wonder? Fostering Curiosity Here, There and Everywhere (2013); How Do We Know They’re Getting Better? Assessment for 21st Century Minds, K-8 (2012); Why are School Buses always Yellow? Teaching for Inquiry, PreK-5 (2007); Problem-Base Learning—An Inquiry Approach (2007); Developing More Curious Minds (2003); “. . . EVER WONDER. . ?” (1992); Opening the American Mind (1988) and Playgrounds of Our Minds (1980).

A recent (2013) novel, Absolute Bearing, is available at amazon.com. One reviewer wrote: “Not since I read Nicholas Monsarrat's THE CRUEL SEA have I enjoyed a sea tale, indeed, a tale of life itself, so much!”

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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Profile Image for Julián Cárdenas Barrera.
2 reviews
December 8, 2018
Los ejemplos de aplicación de la estrategia PBL y otros se vuelven demasiado repetitivos, sin embargo, es una buena fuente de la fundamentación teórica.
590 reviews
July 5, 2015
I'm interested in implementing PBL around my literature units and found this book somewhat helpful. For me, I think the book lacked specificity even though it did give me some ideas on how to design PBL units. I would have loved to see a detailed literature unit all the way from start to finish upon which I could model my units, but the book lacked this amount of detail for literature. Still, I understand the basic premise around PBL and will be trying to integrate the concepts this upcoming year.
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