Course assignment - Reflection 5

Course assignment - Reflection 5

The topic of this weeks’ reflection is the Problem-Based learning. This instructional method is conceived as one of the most innovative in educational settings. The first field that used this method was the medical field. Medical students needed experience solving real life problems. After excellent results in the medical field, fields like administration, physics, nutrition, criminal justice and education have adopted the problem-based learning. The problem-based learning was created following some core aspects of the constructivism like individual and group knowledge gained through social interactions and reinforced by the educational environment, multiple perspectives allow learners to construct their knowledge.

The goal of problem-based learning increases students’ learning in order to let them solve problems related to their field. To achieve this, it is necessary to construct significant problems, that allow students to address simulations and finally solve the problems.

There are some aspects during problem-based instruction: is required to create groups with no more than 6 students, during group work students will try to identify and define the problem to later work to complete assignments that help them to generate a hypothesis to solve the problem.

As teachers, we need to identify a different kind of skill that problem-solving can help us to strength in our students. Empirical evidence showed that higher order thinking, self-directed learning, self-perception, and confidence are some of the skills that students can strength while working with PBL.

I have used this approach once, but I would like work in a proposal to implement a better-planned project. I would like to use problem-based learning with the use of technology to solve real life problems, I still have questions about what kind of subject to use but I really like the idea of implementing this instructional method.

As mentioned by Hande, Mohammed & Komattil (2015) in their empirical study, the problem-based learning approach helped students to acquire generic skills and favorable attitude and behavior. For my proposal, I would like to use the approach to not only acquire knowledge but to help students to contextualize it in their real life.

I would like to develop certain kind of problems related to the implementation of mathematics and technology in students’ real life contexts. I always remember that mostly all my math teachers could not answer the question: What I can do with this (mathematics knowledge like derivatives, integrates, etc.) in real life? So now as a Ph.D. student I would like to contribute in this area even when I am not a mathematics teacher I think I can develop a project to address this problem, I still have questions on the implementation of problem-based learning like: how can I integrate technology and mathematics in an interesting project for students, how can I engage students in math projects?

References

Hande, S., Mohammed, C. A., & Komattil, M. (2015). Acquisition of knowledge, generic skills, and attitudes through problem-based learning: Student perspectives in a hybrid curriculum. Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences, 10(1), 21–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtumed.2014.01.008

Hung, W., Jonassen, D. H., & Liu, R. (2007). Problem-based learning. In J. M. Spector, M. D. Merrill, J. van Merrienboer, & M. P. Driscoll (Eds.), Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (Vol. 1) (pp. 485–506). New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Course assignment- Reflection 4

The reflection for this week is about the Scientific Inquiry. According to Schwartz, Lederman & Crawford (2003), scientific inquiry includes students centered projects, is constructed with daily practice, and provide students with a great opportunity to have social construction and understanding of concepts and phenomena. Basically, the scientific inquiry has a close relationship with the process used by scientists to study the world and give an explanation of certain phenomena, the explanation they give is mainly derived from their observations.

Translated to the educational field the scientific inquiry is a scientific process that provides students with questions and suggests methods to understand and discover relationships in different phenomena. Using the scientific inquiry can help students to also more accurate critical thinking competence, discover real science, be aware of the research process, etc.

The Scientific inquiry process is the result of some findings from the NRC that include the following:

1.     understanding science is more than knowing facts, this finding shows us the process in which scientists make connections between their conceptual frameworks.

2.     Students build new knowledge and understand based on what they already know and believe, it means that students can have experience in scientific phenomena and its process to build new explanations.

3.     Students formulate new knowledge by modifying and refining their current concepts, it means that by using the scientific inquiry students can find better ways to answer questions and to finally explain certain events or facts.

4.     Learning is mediated by the social environment, it means that the scientific inquiry is richer when students share and realize different aspects by socializing findings.

5.     Effective learning requires students taking control of their own learning, it means that students should identify the different phases of a project to be able to decide the different types of evidence they need.

6.     The ability to apply knowledge to novel situations is affected by the degree that students learn with understanding, when students find tasks and assignments useful they can appreciate how they increase their skill level.

The whole process of scientific inquiry allows students to be engaged, collect evidence to answer questions, create and formulate explanations based on the collected evidence, evaluate their explanations in light of their scientific understanding, communicate and justify explanations. If one of these phases is missing, the scientific inquiry process is described as partial. It is necessary to apply all the phases to have scientific inquiry project.

I consider this educational approach as ideal, I would like to use it in a proposal to help students to better understand daily life events like pollution or the increasing number of technological waste. I think that the method can be effective addressing a new understanding of the problem and find plausible solutions for students. When students have the opportunity to make research on their own is more feasible to have significant learning and critical thinking that results in different behaviors. In that proposal I would like to answer questions like: What are the effects of technological waste in your community? What can you do to help the environment?

About the scientific inquiry model, I would like to know if someone has used it in other disciplines but science, like social sciences. I find the process pretty related with the research method, but I am not sure that can be applied using the same methodical process.

References:

Bybee, R., Bloom, M., Phillips, J., & Knapp, N. (2005). Doing Science: The process of Scientific Inquiry. Center      for Curriculum Development. Colorado Springs, CO.

Schwartz, R., Lederman, N., & Crawford, B. (2003). Developing views of nature of science in an authentic context: An explicit approach to bridging the gap between nature of science and scientific inquiry. Science Teacher Education, 88(4), 610–645. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.10128