Re: Problem Based Learning

nate (schmolze who-is-at students.wisc.edu)
Thu, 27 May 1999 12:14:42 -0500

----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Penuel <bpenuel who-is-at unix.sri.com>
To: <xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 1999 9:40 AM
Subject: Re: Problem Based Learning

> Nate brings up the issue of the transformation of relationships and I
believe
> identities in the context of Problem Based Learning. I would argue that
> insofar as student problem solving efforts remain contextualized by
> students as
> 'assignments' that have the teacher as the primary audience (and perhaps
> students within the class as a secondary audience), there's quite a bit
of
> truth to that claim.
>

I think Bill is right as I am inclined to understand him. The way that
education tends to be organized gives us concepts such as teacher directed,
child initiated etc, but if we broaden or elaborate learning from that
particular "garden" such terms are no longer very beneficial. In
non-school environments such as 5th D., or afterschool such ways of
thinking become pretty silly. In school environments such things as
projects where the goal is the artifact itself such strict divisions don't
make sense. I tend to dislike such terms such as student centered or
teacher centered because they rarely occur in such clear cut fashion
outside of "educational activity".

My daughter and I were recently working on an autobiographical project for
school and I could not come up with a clear division of what was dad
directed vs child directed. She was actively involved in getting ideas on
paper, and I assisted in helping her organize her ideas. I ended up typing
up the book and then we went through it together to see if anything ought
to be added. I showed her how to bring in clip art and was senitive to her
transforming of the activity. With the end of the year rush in school it
looked as if she would not finish the project and that concerned her. The
time contraint facilitated me taking over a larger portion of the joint
activity, so she could give her teacher a copy before school ended. Was
this activity adult or child directed? It was not looked at in such terms,
it was a joint activity in which we both had an identity invested and were
able to transform.

With that said, student centered in contrast to being appositional to a
traditional educational envirement is very much a product of it. I would
go so far to argue they are different poles of inauthenticity. Although;
Family of Five is a nice fantasy it usually does not work so well in "real
life". Activity Theory, sociocultural theory, co-constructivism etc., for
me, are approaches that are more "authentic" because they attempt to avoid
either pole of inauthenticity.

Nate