The Grand Challenge: Helping Teachers Learn/Teach Cutting-Edge Science via a Problem-Based Learning Approach

• In Event: Instructional Technology SIG: Preparing Current and Future Teachers to Implement Technology-Enhanced Problem-Based Learning Strategies in Their Classrooms: Research and Recommendations

Abstract

Although today’s researchers in science and engineering are focused on grand challenges such as sustainability and climate change, most high school courses don’t address these global issues. As a result, future workers are largely disconnected from the type of problems they will be expected to help solve.

To close this gap, a team of Purdue researchers and educators are developing a sustainable model for integrating research and education that engages teachers, particularly in rural areas, in ongoing research projects related to the global energy crisis while simultaneously building their understanding of how to teach this content using a problem-based learning approach.

In this presentation, I describe the key elements of our integrated approach, which engaged STEM inservice and preservice teachers in a two-week intensive summer workshop to first experience, and then create, a PBL immersive unit related to sustainable energy. Participants included 7 inservice teachers, currently teaching in rural districts across the state, and 13 second-career pre-service teachers, hired by various rural districts to begin teaching in the fall. Pre-service teachers comprised the second cohort of the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Program, designed to bring highly qualified STEM teachers into rural secondary schools. Ultimately, we hoped to spark interest in STEM fields by sharing numerous grand-challenge topics with prospective college students, especially in rural settings.

Results from our first iteration of this approach (Summer, 2011) showed an average gain, from pre to post-workshop, of 1.8 points on a 30-item knowledge test related to sustainable energy, which was significant at the .02 level (t=-2.65). On the pretest, scores ranged from 10 to 27, with an average of 23.3. Posttest scores ranged from 21 – 30 with an average of 25.1. In general, participants gained relevant content knowledge through their participation in the PBL summer workshop.

Results also indicated significant increases in both knowledge about (t = -2.83; p = .006), and confidence for using (t = -7.61; p < .000), problem-based learning approaches. Participants showed the greatest gains in their confidence for 1) creating scaffolds to support student inquiry and 1) facilitating student questioning in an ill-structured environment (+1.44 gain, each, on a 5 point scale). However, confidence for creating scaffolds to support inquiry (M=3.50) and to support students’ metacognition (M=3.75) were still relatively low among pre-service teachers, suggesting the need for more support regarding how to facilitate this critical aspect of the PBL process.

Additional data will be gathered this coming school year as teachers begin implementing their PBL units, providing a more complete picture of their “applied” knowledge and confidence for using PBL to teach topics related to sustainable energy.

Acknowledgments. This work was supported, in part, by the NSF, Innovations through Institutional Integration Project (DUE-0963621). The authors wish to acknowledge invaluable support provided by Kari Clase, Maureen McCann, Omolola Adedokun, and the as well as the TAs and participants in EDCI 62700.

Author

• Peggy A. Ertmer, Purdue University