EDTECH 542: Week 2 Reflections

Project Based Learning in Diverse Classrooms

The article “The Effectiveness of Problem-Based Instruction: A Comparative Study of Instructional Methods and Student Characteristics” by Mergendoller and Maxwell offers insight into the how project based learning can be effective for diverse learners. The results of the article found that students with academic challenges did necessarily show tremendous growth towards grade improvement, but did show growth toward  verbal and cognitive skills through the PBL process.  Further research needs to be done with at-risk students allowing for other measures to to be taken in addition to verbal articulation. When I think about my experiences with working with diverse student populations, I would agree with these results. For many of these students the content is not the most important aspect of learning, but the social skills, problem solving skills, and collaboration skills can be foundational in future success for these students. PBL provides a medium in which student can learn these valuable skills along with academic content making it a win-win  for both teachers and students alike.

How do you think PBL will fit into your teaching style?

When looking at my style of teaching I think that PBL would be a great fit for me. I like to facilitate a very student centered classroom. I enjoy working with students to help them find solutions to the challenges they have with the academic tasks they need to complete. I also like to have diversity in instruction and not have a student centered class all the time. I think it is important for teachers to help students find ways to actively engage in teacher centered instruction.  This is an additional valuable skill set to have that can support the 21st century skills that PBL promotes. From my examination of PBL to this point I think it provides these types of instructional strategies that can be implemented throughout the project.

Do you have an idea for a project? If so, begin articulating it now.

Currently I am leaning towards a topic that is covered in the first few weeks biology class. These topics include science safety or science process and skills. I think creating a PBL project so early in the year will help students develop the necessary skills to be successful in class throughout the semester. As these students are new to high school they are usually really pliable at the beginning of the year and this could help establish great routines for class behaviors around collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving. The science process and skills unit would be ideal for a PBL unit. The main idea being “How do scientist solve problems?”. I will need to develop a real world scenario that is engaging and has an effective driving question. These will be my next steps towards the development of my PBL project for this class.