THE PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING AND ITSIMPLEMENTATION IN GREECE. A NEEDS ANALYSIS.

University of Crete, Natural History Museum of Crete (NHMC), Dpt of EducationIasmi STATHI

PhD Biologist, Education Consultant in NHMC

Catherina VOREADOU

PhD Biologist, Head of Education in NHMC

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cience studies134246-LLP-1-2007-IT-1-COMENIUS-CMPGrant Agreement 2007-3434/001-001This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use

which may be made of the information contained therein.

ABSTRACT

This report refers to the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and its implementation in theEducational System of Greece. The research was conducted for all levels of the EducationalSystem and was carried out through literature review, study of the educational curricula forthe Primary, Secondary and University Education and interviews with selected teachers of primary and secondary education in Crete, Greece. Everybody agrees that PBL is a quiteinnovative methodology for a more effective learning procedure; it is active, morecooperative, gives strength in diversity and in personal relationships, develops andempowers students. Though, its implementation in Greek schools is relatively poor and itsincorporation into the educational system has still to be effected.

INTRODUCTION

According toHmelo-Silver & Barrows (2006), teaching is a complex cognitive activity, whether accomplished in a teacher-centered or student-centered classroom (Leinhardt1993). The way of teaching and the strategies that are applied are intimately related toteachers’ beliefs about the nature of the teaching-learning process (Schoenfeld 1998).Teachers must juggle many goals as they coordinate pedagogical actions with various kindsof knowledge, such as subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge andknowledge of individual students. For experts, teaching is a problem-solving context inwhich they must come to understand the meaning of students’ ideas rather than just correctthem (Lampert 2001). This is especially true when teachers and students co-construct theinstructional agenda in a student-centered environment such as

Problem-Based Learning(PBL

).PBL is an active teaching methodology in which an authentic, real-world problem drives thecurriculum. Students work in small groups of about 4 or 5, solving problems presented tothem and which are based on real work scenarios (Boud & Feletti 1997). In other words,PBL is based on the use of specific problems as a stimulus for learning (Barrows 2000). The

students

in PBL learn through solving those problems and reflecting on their experiences(Barrows & Tamblyn 1980). Such problems do not necessarily have a single correct answerbut require learners to consider alternatives and to provide a reasoned argument to supportthe solution that they generate. In PBL, students have the opportunity to develop skills inreasoning and self-directed learning. Empirical studies of PBL have demonstrated that

students who have learned from PBL curricula are better able to apply their knowledge tonovel problems as well as utilize more effective self-directed learning strategies thanstudents who have learned from traditional curricula (Schmidt et al. 1996, Hmelo 1998,Hmelo & Lin 2000). The PBL method requires students to become responsible for their ownlearning.The

teacher’s

role in PBL is to facilitate collaborative knowledge construction. This meansthat the PBL teacher is a facilitator of student learning, and his/her interventions diminish asstudents progressively take on responsibility for their own learning processes. This methodis characteristically carried out in small, facilitated groups and takes advantage of the socialaspect of learning through discussion, problem solving and study with peers (Hmelo-Silver2004). The facilitator guides students in the learning process, pushing them to think deeplyand models the kinds of questions that students need to be asking themselves, thus forminga cognitive apprenticeship (Collins et al. 1989). They make key aspects of expertise visiblethrough questions that scaffold student learning through modelling, coaching and eventuallyfading back some of their support. In PBL the facilitator is an expert learner, able to modelgood strategies for learning and thinking, rather than providing expertise in specific content.This role is critical, as the facilitator must continually monitor the discussion, selecting andimplementing appropriate strategies as needed. As students become more experienced withPBL, facilitators can fade their scaffolding until, finally, the learners adopt much of theirquestioning role (Hmelo-Silver & Barrows 2006).As a cognitive apprenticeship, PBL situates learning in complex problems (Hmelo-Silver2004) and this is the reason why PBL is a very useful method for the teaching of Sciencecourses. Professional and funding bodies promote PBL as an appropriate strategy forprofessional education and it is increasingly becoming the method of choice (Newman2003).