Why Use Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in Classrooms?

All education involves either problem solving or preparation for problem solving. From mathematical calculations (“What does this equal?”) to literary analysis (“What does this mean?”) to scientific experiments (“Why and how does this happen?”) to historical investigation (“What took place, and why did it occur that way?”), teachers show students how to answer questions and solve problems. When teachers and schools skip the problem-formulating stage—handing facts and procedures to students without giving them a chance to develop their own questions and investigate by themselves—students may memorize material but will not fully understand or be able to use it. Problem-based learning (PBL) provides a structure for discovery that helps students internalize learning and leads to greater comprehension.

The roots of problem-based learning can be traced to the progressive movement, especially to John Dewey’s belief that teachers should teach by appealing to students’ natural instincts to investigate and create. Dewey wrote that “the first approach to any subject in school, if thought is to be aroused and not words acquired, should be as unscholastic as possible”. For Dewey, students’ experiences outside of school provide us with clues for how to adapt lessons based on what interests and engages them. 

Educators who use problembased learning recognize that in the world outside of school, adults build their knowledge and skills as they solve a real problem or answer an important question—not through abstract exercises.

Howard Barrows, a physician and medical educator at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, designed a series of problems that went beyond conventional case studies. He didn’t give students all the information but required them to research a situation, develop appropriate questions, and produce their own plan to solve the problem. This cultivated students’ “clinical reasoning process” as well as their understanding of the tools at their disposal. He found that PBL also developed students’ abilities to extend and improve their knowledge to keep up in the ever-expanding
field of medicine and to learn how to provide care for new illnesses they encountered. Students who were taught through PBL became “self-directed learners” with the desire to know and learn, the ability to formulate their needs as learners, and the ability to select and use the best available resources to satisfy these needs. Barrows and Tamblyn defined this new method, problem-based learning, as “the learning that results from the process of working toward the understanding or resolution of a problem” (Barrows and Tamblyn 1980, p. 18). They summarized the process as
follows:

1. The problem is encountered first in the learning sequence,before any preparation or study has occurred.
2. The problem situation is presented to the student in the same way it would present in reality.
3. The student works with the problem in a manner that permits his ability to reason and apply knowledge to be challenged and evaluated, appropriate to his level of learning.
4. Needed areas of learning are identified in the process of work with the problem and used as a guide to individualized study.
5. The skills and knowledge acquired by this study are applied back to the problem, to evaluate the effectiveness of learning and to reinforce learning.
6. The learning that has occurred in work with the problem and in individualized study is summarized and integrated into the student’s existing knowledge and skills (Barrows and Tamblyn 1980, pp. 191–192).

Problem-Based Learning and the School Improvement Movement

Although the PBL method outlined in the preceding section originally was designed for medical schools, it has been adopted by a growing number of K–12 schools working to raise student achievement. Students educated for the world of the 21st century must develop habits of thinking, researching, and problem solving to succeed in a rapidly changing world.

Thinking and problem-solving skills are not explicitly measured on a national basis. But studies show that while students are making progress in learning basic skills, only a small percentage perform at desired grade levels and master higher-order thinking. Clearly, while students are taught the basics, they are unable to proceed to understanding and using advanced knowledge. 

Problem-based learning fits right into the movement for higher standards and greater achievement. PBL asks students to demonstrate an understanding of the material, not just to parrot back information with a few word changes. Research and teachers’ experience have demonstrated that active instructional techniques like PBL can motivate bored students and raise their understanding and achievement. These student-centered strategies build critical thinking and reasoning skills, further students’ creativity and independence, and help students earn a sense of ownership over their own work.

In classrooms where educators employ active learning strategies, students talk to each other, not through the teacher, and they initiate and manage many of their own activities. In these classes, the teacher serves as a guide to learning, providing room for students to increase their independence and build their own creativity. The teachers rely less on textbooks, using them as only one of a number of valid information sources that include everything from the Internet to community members. Similarly, schools using active learning become more flexible, allowing teachers greater freedom to direct their students and structure their own courses. They recognize that helping students master information needed to solve a problem and building their analytical reasoning skills are at least as important as memorizing a predetermined answer.

PBL offers K–12 teachers a structured method to help their students build thinking and problem-solving skills while students master important subject knowledge. It empowers students with greater freedom while providing a process that teachers can use to guide and lead students. Most of all, PBL transfers the active role in the classroom to students through problems that connect to their lives and procedures that require them to find needed information, think through a situation, solve the problem, and develop a final presentation.

Problem-Based Learning and Real Life

Students make a greater attempt to understand and remember when they see connections between the material they study and their own lives. Students constantly ask why they need to study a subject or what use the information will be to them. PBL answers these questions by placing learning in the context of real life. Students acquire new knowledge or skills to solve a problem or complete a task that is highly relevant to their lives. Problem-based learning deals with problems that are as close to reallife situations as possible.

Problem-Based Learning and Active Engagement

In many classrooms, learning is a passive activity. Students take notes during a teacher’s lecture and repeat the same information back on tests. When students read a chapter assigned by the teacher and respond to questions about it, the answers are found in the chapter and are already known by the teacher. Even in math and science classes, teachers rarely allow students to discover principles for themselves but instead present the mathematical techniques and scientific laws and then make assignments where students simply practice what they already have been taught.

By contrast, problem-based learning promotes students’ active engagement with learning. Solving a PBL problem demands student participation. The teacher helps and advises but does not direct. Learning becomes the act of discovery as students examine the problem, research its background, analyze possible solutions, develop a proposal, and produce a final result. Not only is this active learning more interesting and engaging for students, it also develops a greater understanding of the material since students find the information for themselves and then actively use the information and their skills to complete the project.

Problem-Based Learning and Interdisciplinary Learning

Students who are used to switching subjects throughout the day act surprised when their science teacher corrects spelling on lab reports or their English teacher refers to historical events that shaped a writer’s work. They have been taught to see each subject as totally isolated from any others. However, in the world outside school, work rarely fits the narrow boundaries of a single academic discipline. A doctor needs skills in biology, chemistry, mathematics, psychology, and English. A newspaper reporter needs a knowledge of English and history as well as science and statistics.

This holds true for PBL projects that mirror real-world conditions. Problem-based learning promotes an interdisciplinary approach. Because PBL requires students to read and write, research and analyze, and think and calculate, the problems frequently cut across disciplines and lend themselves to interdisciplinary courses. This shows students the connections between and among the subjects, helps them make greater sense of their schooling as a unified whole, and helps them use their knowledge of one field to increase their understanding of another.

Reference:

Barrows, H.S., and R.M. Tamblyn. (1980). Problem-Based Learning: An Approach to Medical Education. New York: Springer Publishing Company.

Delisle, Robert. (1997). How to Use Problem-Based Learning in the Classroom. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data.