Problem Based Learning

I think I am getting the hang of this! Today we discussed problem-based learning, than applied the methodology to a series of practical school issues. It was a very interesting exercise, especially since I had previously studied PBL learning. In my classes we invented our own PBL packages for students in elementary school (my package involved an imaginary situation where the Earth had flooded and students had to decide how humanity would survive). These PBL packages that we created were also designed to have students take charge of their learning and engage directly with the material, but I had never considered using it for university students.

The exercise we completed had us back in our groups to analyze and discuss different scenarios that had happened in schools. I was fortunate that my group is made up of one representative from each country, so we had a very balanced look at the scenarios from many different perspectives. The first scenario we started with would be a nightmare for any teacher – an eight-year-old boy with a knife at school. There were just so many unknowns about the situation that it was hard to determine what questions we should ask without knowing something more substantial about the student. My group in particular became interested in questions of power within families in our respective cultures (as in, who makes the decisions, mom or dad?). What I found really curious is that despite the fact that Denmark is physically far closer to Turkey than Canada, we found that Denmark and Canada had many more cultural similarities, and many more differences with Turkey and even to a smaller degree, Hungary. What was lovely about the group is that we were able to discuss this (more sensitive) topic without feeling judged, just open acceptance from the whole group.

The next situations I found much more applicable to my every day practice, as it dealt with a huge problem in Canada – cyber bullying. We talked about two situations in total, one where a boy was bullied on an online forum he managed, and another where a teenage girl was probably bullied online, but never confided in anyone. This seems to be all too common a story in Canada; in fact Irene read a statistic that 1 in 4 children are now cyber bullied. This was also an interesting issue to discuss because it brought up questions of free speech, the right to privacy and the limits of a schools authority (especially since the cyber bullying will affect the child at school, and may involve students from the same classroom, but what can a teacher do if the bullying does not occur on school property or on school computers?).

I think that there is not a single solution to any of these problems. The best we can do is spread awareness and compassion in our students by making role playing a part of our classroom, reading books from many different perspectives and building an atmosphere of trust and empathy for everyone. And using PBL to encourage students to dig deeper into an issue and consider all angles and aspects of it before making a decision!