Abstract:
This presentation reports on the final stages of an Australian Research Council funded Linkage project (2020-2023), “Exploring Problem based learning in STEM Education”. The project aims to explore the potential of Problem Based Learning (PBL) as a way to enhance Australian school-based Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. Developing teacher knowledge, skills and confidence in STEM education is critical in the development of STEM literacies in students, such as the ability to identify, apply, and integrate concepts from STEM domains towards understanding complex problems, and innovating to solve them. Aspirationally, such knowledge, skills and capabilities are intended to contribute to a culture of innovation and productivity across the population. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) offers a potentially useful framework to integrate different STEM domains and actively position students as central to the learning process where they work as self-directed, interdependent and independent learners to solve non-routine problems. Intended outcomes of the project include a pedagogical framework specifically designed to support the use of PBL in STEM and illustrations of teacher practice which capture the realities of PBL in practice. Given the complex and changing educational systems in which the project activities take place, a design-based research approach has been utilised emphasizing the important role of collaboration between researchers and practitioners in the design and implementation of this pedagogical framework. Findings from Phase 1 of the project developed four key principles of PBL: rich and relevant learning contexts; flexible knowledge, skills and capabilities; active and strategic metacognitive reasoning; and collaboration based on intrinsic motivation. Phase 2 saw teachers using these principles to frame their STEM teaching while also engaging in an iterative design cycle to ensure the PBL pedagogical framework was continually informed by, and refined in response to, teacher experience and the insights that were emerging from their practice.
This presentation reports on the final phase of the project, the development of the Illustrations of Practice which are sensitive to the varying range of contexts in which teachers undertake their work. The presentation will explore some of the key considerations which have been distilled from teacher practice, particularly insights about how the principles have prompted teachers to think differently about the conditions and opportunities they create to enhance student learning in STEM. Challenges that teachers have experienced will also be discussed in an attempt to understand further considerations needed to enhance the effective use of PBL in STEM teaching and learning.
This presentation reports on the final phase of the project, the development of the Illustrations of Practice which are sensitive to the varying range of contexts in which teachers undertake their work. The presentation will explore some of the key considerations which have been distilled from teacher practice, particularly insights about how the principles have prompted teachers to think differently about the conditions and opportunities they create to enhance student learning in STEM. Challenges that teachers have experienced will also be discussed in an attempt to understand further considerations needed to enhance the effective use of PBL in STEM teaching and learning.