Problem Based Implementation:

I plan to incorporate Problem Based (PB) learning into my own teaching. My students have been exposed to inquire based learning through the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. The IB foundation should be a great building block for implementing PB learning into my teaching. My plan is to incorporate PB learning into guided reading instruction through the use of non-fiction books. I’ll guide my students to look at multiple perspectives through the eyes of real-life people who have impacted our world. Students will look at challenges related to these people and their cultural backgrounds and histories. They’ll draw on their own experiences relating issues of their own cultural experiences to these real-life people, and draw conclusions. 

John Barell. (2001, March). Inquisitive minds: Tapping the wellsprings of knowledge. Education Week, 20(26), 42,46. Retrieved March 27, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals database. (Document ID: 69925916).

Barell, John (2001). Inquisitive Minds. Education Week. 42-43, 46-47.

Problem Based Learning:

“An inquiry process that resolves questions, curiosities, doubts, and uncertainties about complex phenomena in life. A problem is any doubt, difficulty, or uncertainty that invites or needs some kind of resolution. Student inquiry is very much an integral part of PBL and problem resolution.”

~ John Barell

Barell, John (2001). Inquisitive Minds. Education Week. 42-43, 46-47.

Every child growing up learns about the world by exploring everything and anything around them. I truly believe that students learn from doing rather than just showing. This led me to think about, how does my teaching impact students? I am allowing them to see and then do but are they really experiencing learning in a way that will impact them and be applicable to their life? After all isn’t that our job as teachers, preparing students for the real world? Yes!

Preparing our students for life outside of the classroom:
• How do we guide our students to become real world thinkers?
• How can we apply community based learning to read our students for the real world?
• Why is curiosity so important, and what can we do to create a more embedded culture of inquisitiveness within schools and society?