Everyday Problem-Based Learning: Quick Projects to Build Problem-Solving Fluency

by Brian Pete, Robin Fogarty

Educators know that problem-based learning answers that perennial student “When will I ever use this in real life?” Faced with a meaty problem to solve, students finally “get” why they need to learn the content and are energized to do so. But here’s the exciting problem-based learning doesn’t require weeks of study or an end-of-year project. In this book, Brian Pete and Robin Fogarty show how you can use problem-based learning as a daily approach to helping students learn authentic and relevant content and skills. They explain how to engage students in each of the seven steps in the problem-based learning model, so students learn how to develop good questions, launch their inquiry, gather information, organize their information, create evidence, present their findings, and assess their learning. Using practical examples, they also describe how to help students master these seven important thinking develop, analyze, reason, understand, solve, apply, and evaluate. To put all this in context, the authors offer seven “PBL in a Nutshell” lessons that can easily be incorporated in a single classroom period. Depth of thinking and ease of implementation--this is problem-based learning at its best.

Genres: Education

143 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 11, 2017

Reviews

[Nathalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I work a project based learning school and this is the book I would have liked to have had before I began teaching. While trial and error has been a supportive learning experience, it has been incredibly inspiring and helpful to have the elements of a great project based curriculum broken down and well researched.

I am going to recommend this book to all our new teachers that come in.

I will say though I’m not to keen on some of the sample projects although some are helpful in clearly showing the steps broken down. I don’t see how these could be implemented in a 45 minute class period as they ambitiously suggest. So if you got this book just for the projects, I can see why you wouldn’t be too satisfied with the book. The best use would be to take a chapter and play with the ideas of that chapter (for example: organization) in your classroom.

It’s given me a lot to digest and experiment with for our next project and I appreciate the research behind it. It’s led me to a couple of helpful tangents that I feel will support me further.