Creta

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

University of Crete, Natural History Museum of Crete (NHMC), Dpt of Education

Iasmi STATHI PhD Biologist, Education Consultant in NHMC Catherina VOREADOU PhD Biologist, Head of Education in NHMC

EUCLIDES – Enhancing the Use of Cooperative Learning to Increase Development of Science studies 134246-LLP-1-2007-IT-1-COMENIUS-CMP Grant Agreement 2007-3434/001-001 This 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 the Educational System of Greece. The research was conducted for all levels of the Educational System and was carried out through literature review, study of the educational curricula for the Primary, Secondary and University Education and interviews with selected teachers of primary and secondary education in Crete, Greece. Everybody agrees that PBL is a quite innovative methodology for a more effective learning procedure; it is active, more cooperative, gives strength in diversity and in personal relationships, develops and empowers students. Though, its implementation in Greek schools is relatively poor and its incorporation into the educational system has still to be effected.

INTRODUCTION According to Hmelo-Silver & Barrows (2006), teaching is a complex cognitive activity, whether accomplished in a teacher-centered or student-centered classroom (Leinhardt 1993). The way of teaching and the strategies that are applied are intimately related to teachers’ beliefs about the nature of the teaching-learning process (Schoenfeld 1998). Teachers must juggle many goals as they coordinate pedagogical actions with various kinds of knowledge, such as subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and knowledge of individual students. For experts, teaching is a problem-solving context in which they must come to understand the meaning of students’ ideas rather than just correct them (Lampert 2001). This is especially true when teachers and students co-construct the instructional 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 the curriculum. Students work in small groups of about 4 or 5, solving problems presented to them 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 answer but require learners to consider alternatives and to provide a reasoned argument to support the solution that they generate. In PBL, students have the opportunity to develop skills in reasoning 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 to novel problems as well as utilize more effective self-directed learning strategies than students 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 own learning. The teacher’s role in PBL is to facilitate collaborative knowledge construction. This means that the PBL teacher is a facilitator of student learning, and his/her interventions diminish as students progressively take on responsibility for their own learning processes. This method is characteristically carried out in small, facilitated groups and takes advantage of the social aspect of learning through discussion, problem solving and study with peers (Hmelo-Silver 2004). The facilitator guides students in the learning process, pushing them to think deeply and models the kinds of questions that students need to be asking themselves, thus forming a cognitive apprenticeship (Collins et al. 1989). They make key aspects of expertise visible through questions that scaffold student learning through modelling, coaching and eventually fading back some of their support. In PBL the facilitator is an expert learner, able to model good 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 and implementing appropriate strategies as needed. As students become more experienced with PBL, facilitators can fade their scaffolding until, finally, the learners adopt much of their questioning role (Hmelo-Silver & Barrows 2006). As a cognitive apprenticeship, PBL situates learning in complex problems (Hmelo-Silver 2004) and this is the reason why PBL is a very useful method for the teaching of Science courses. Professional and funding bodies promote PBL as an appropriate strategy for professional education and it is increasingly becoming the method of choice (Newman 2003).

PBL IN GREECE Considering the formal Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education in Greece, the PBL methodology has not been officially implemented in teaching Science courses. This is because the Greek education system is centralised with a compulsory unified programme for all the schools in the country. The curriculum is dense, based on compartmentalisation of subject areas and with a strictly regulated timetable, so it does not offer the possibility of applying new methods and initiatives. On the other hand, PBL is broadly implemented in school projects, like the ones that refer to School Environmental Education, which are complementary activities to Greek School curriculum. Considering the Higher education, PBL is the main teaching methodology in Science projects in almost all the Greek Universities (Flogaitis & Alexopoulou 1991, Georgouli et al. 2003, Grammatikopoulos et al. 2004, Mentzelou 2004, Siasakos et al. 2008, Zografakis et al. 2008). PBL is also broadly implemented in projects and activities in Greek institutions relevant to informal education like: •

Centers of Environmental Education, supervised by the Greek Ministry of Education

•

Museums

•

NGOs

•

Other Institutions with educational activities and educational research

Some interesting web sites concerning educational projects in Greece, where PBL is implemented are the following: http://www.e-yliko.gr/htmls/programs/eu_progrs.aspx http://kee.gr/html/english_main.php http://www.ypepth.gr/en_ec_home.htm http://www.ea.gr/ea/

IMPLEMENTATION OF PBL IN GREECE In the following paragraphs, there is a short description of three projects as examples of PBL implementation in Greece.

1.

PROJECT

COLLAGE:

Collaborative

Learning

Platform

Using

Game-like

Enhancements http://www.ea.gr/ep/collage The overall objective of COLLAGE project was the creation of an innovative and more flexible approach to e-learning. The COLLAGE project aspired to identify existing applications of mobile learning for schools, build on these examples to go a step further and develop an innovative state-of-the-art application that adopts a game-based approach. The project was directed to secondary school students and teachers. Indirectly, parents, education policy makers, technology developers and the general public were also involved. The COLLAGE project was supported by the e-Learning initiative of the European Commission. It started on January 2006 and was completed by January 2008. The COLLAGE project brought to secondary school students and their teachers a mobile learning platform for context-dependent games. Fun, interdisciplinary, collaboration and challenge beyond the four walls of the classroom created new learning opportunities. The COLLAGE platform supported the authoring and playing of a board-like game on a site of educational interest. The game was played with the aid of mobile learning technology (mainly mobile phones and PDA's and GPS technology) with direct communication with players situated on site, field or in the classroom. One of the real problems for which the methodology of PBL was implemented in the frames of Collage was the recording of the ecological water quality of a river. The pupils through context-dependent games and on mobile learning platforms had to adopt the correct methodology, in order to record these aquatic organisms which are indicators of the quality of the river ecosystem.

2. PROJECT CONFRESH: Teaching Methods and Pedagogical Strategies for the Promotion

to

Schools

of

CONservation

and

Sustainable

Development

of

FRESHwater Ecosystems www.nhmc.uoc.gr/confresh The CONFRESH project promoted the conservation and sustainable development of freshwater ecosystems to schools of secondary education, through professional training of their educational staff. It was supported by SOCRATES program (Comenius action) of the European Commission. It started on October 2005 and finished on September 2008. The pedagogical and didactical approaches which have been applied, took into account the previous knowledge of the students, from school and from every day life, as well as the emotional and the psychological parameters that influence their learning. These approaches included paper and electronic material, a field guide, hands-on activities, scientific observation, recording sheets, identification cards and establishment of a SchoolNet through the project’s webpage. The real problem for which the methodology of PBL was implemented was the different types of freshwater pollution which the pupils had to identify, find their sources, learn about their function and effects on freshwater ecosystems and propose several ideas and proposals for the recovery of freshwater ecosystems.

3. PROJECT “THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT OF GREECE” www.nhmc.uoc.gr The project aims were to present in a simple and comprehensive way the bio- and geodiversity of the main ecosystems of Greece and build activities for a step by step discovery of these ecosystems by the pupils themselves. The teacher’s role was, as facilitator, to coordinate the learning and discovery procedures. The project was funded by the Greek Ministry of Education. It started on January 2000 and was completed on December 2000. For its implementation, several educational means were used like paper and electronic material, a field guide, hands-on activities, scientific observation, recording sheets and

identification cards. The PBL method was based on the following scenario: Two olive oil mills, operating in a village close to a lake, were disposing their wet wastes into the aquatic ecosystem. The water of the lake turned black and smelled badly. All the sensitive aquatic organisms had moved and all aquatic life was in great danger. The students had to discuss the problem, find the reason for this disaster and take action.

Strengths, criticalities, opportunities and threats In the three projects above the problems were real, the teacher’s role was as facilitator and the evaluation was developing during the implementation. The students worked in groups (cooperative learning), used their previous knowledge (constructivist pedagogy) and high technology (ICT), searched for relative material and literature, worked in the field, used aim-specific protocols, got familiar with the use of maps, developed their observatory capacity by using lenses, stereoscopes and identification cards, constructed field equipment by their own, analyzed data, came to conclusions, made suggestions and took actions. Some difficulties also appeared while implementing these projects: the teacher had to spend a lot of time and effort on their preparation, he/she had to be specialized in biological subjects, the technology was new and it was difficult for the children to learn how to use it and the projects were not within the school curriculum, so they had to be conducted in an off-school time and place. Those projects gave to students the opportunity to actively participate in the solution of the problems and not been just observers. Additionally, once these projects were prepared, they could be used by other schools in Europe and the students from several schools could cooperate exchanging ideas and experiences and comparing their results. A threat to their implementation is that equipments of high technology is necessary, and such equipments are not always available in schools due to their high cost. Additionally, if the teachers are not specialized on the specific scientific subject they will face many difficulties to organize such projects. It is a big challenge for a teacher to accept that he/she is going to learn together with his/her students.

CONCLUSIONS All scientific literature in Greece agrees that PBL is a quite innovative methodology for a more effective learning procedure. It is an active methodology, more cooperative and constructivist, it gives strength in diversity and in personal relationships while in parallel it develops and empowers students. PBL implementation at Greek schools, though, is relatively poor and its incorporation into the educational system has still to be effected. In order to gain this goal it is necessary to further develop the research and educational experimentation in this field, make pilot implementation in schools, organize sufficient training to educational staff, give support to a national program coordinated by Greek authorities, produce printed, audio-visual and in general didactic material in the Greek language, create the prepositions for sufficient diffusion of information to teachers and, regarding to the experience that has already been gained, establish an exchange information system between teachers.

REFERENCES Barrows H.S., 2000. Problem-based learning applied to medical education. Springfield, IL: Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. Barrows H.S. & Tamblyn R., 1980. Problem-based learning: An approach to medical education. New York: Springer. Boud D. & Feletti G. (Editors), 1997. The Challenge of Problem-based Learning. 2nd ed. London, Kogan Page. Collins A., Brown J.S. & Newman S.E., 1989. Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the crafts of reading, writing, and mathematics. In L.B. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, learning, and instruction: Essays in honor of Robert Glaser (pp. 453-494). Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum. Flogaitis E. & Alexopoulou I., 1991. Environmental Education in Greece. European Journal of Education 26 (4): 339-345. Georgouli E., Bakoyannis S. & Giannakoulias P. 2003. Teaching IT in Secondary Education through Problem-Based Learning could be Really Beneficial. ITiCSE'03, June 30-July 2, 2003, Thessaloniki, Greece. Grammatikopoulos V., Kousteiios A., Tsigilis N. & Theodorakis Y., 2004. Applying dynamic evaluation approach in education. Studies in Educational Evaluation 30: 255263. Hmelo C.E., 1998. Problem-based learning: Effects on the early acquisition of cognitive skill in medicine. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 7, 173-208. Hmelo C.E. & Lin X., 2000. Becoming self-directed learners: Strategy development in problem-based learning. In D. Evensen & C.E. Hmelo (Eds.), Problem-based learning: A research perspective on learning interactions (pp. 227-250). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Hmelo-Silver C.E. & Barrows H.S., 2006. Goals and Strategies of a Problem-based Learning Facilitator. The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning 1 (1): 2139. Hmelo-Silver C.E., 2004. Problem-based learning: What and how do students learn? Educational Psychology Review, 235-266. Lampert M., 2001. Teaching problems and the problems of teaching. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Leinhardt G., 1993. On teaching. In R. Glaser (Ed.), Advances in instructional psychology

(pp. 1-54). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Mentzelou P., 2004. The design of a Web-Based Information Technology Student Support System for Higher Education. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT’04) Newman M., 2003. A pilot systematic review and meta-analysis on the effectiveness of Problem Based Learning. Learning & Teaching Subject Network Centre for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Medicine (LTSN-01) UK. p5 Nioras A., Loukopoulos Th. Antonis K., Prentzas D., Papazoglou P., Lampsas P. & Karkanis S., 2001. Hybride Learning Methods in Distance Life Long Education. Technological Education Institute of Lamia, Department of Informatics and Computer Technology. (In greek). (Νιώρας Α., Λουκόπουλος Θ., Αντωνής Κ., Πρέντζας Δ., Παπάζογλου Π., Λάμψας Π. & Καρκάνης Σ., 2001. Υβριδικές Μαθησιακές Μέθοδοι στην Εξ’

Αποστάσεως

Δια

Βίου

Εκπαίδευση.

Τμήμα

Πληροφορικής

και

Τεχνολογίας

Υπολογιστών ΤΕΙ Λαμίας) Schmidt H.G., Machiels-Bongaerts M., Hermans H., ten Cate T.J., Venekamp R. & Boshuizen H.P.A., 1996. The development of diagnostic competence: Comparison of a problem-based, an integrated and a conventional medical curriculum. Academic Medicine, 71, 658-664. Schoenfeld A.H., 1998. Toward a theory of teaching-in-context. Issues in Education, 4, 194. Siasakos K., Panta M., Kaimakamis G., 2008. Implementation of PBL method in the teaching of the course Management Information Systems-MIS. 4th Greek Conference of Information Didactics. 28-30 March 2008, Patra, Greece. P. 517-522. (In greek) (Σιασιάκος Κ., Πάντα Μ., Καϊμακάμης Γ., 2008. Εφαρμογή του Συνδυαστικού Μοντέλου Μάθησης του Βασισμένου σε Πρόβλημα με τη Διάλεξη για τη Διδασκαλία του Μαθήματος των Πληροφοριακών Συστημάτων Διοίκησης – MIS. 4ο Πανελλήνιο Συνέδριο Διδακτικής της Πληροφορικής. 28-30 Μαρτίου 2008, Πάτρα. Σελ. 517-522.) Zografakis N., Menegaki A.N., Tsagarakis K.P., 2008. Effective education for energy efficiency. Energy Policy 36: 3226– 3232.