Problem Based Learning

As suggested by Nelson in “Improving Questioning and Problem-Solving Skills” and elsewhere in the readings, problem based learning involves real world problems that are open-ended that may not have an obvious solution. Real world problems in Physics are extremely difficult for most students. Is it realistic to ask students to solve very difficult problems? If you pick up any physics book and examine the problems at the end of the chapter, you will find many problems that are constructed around some type of physical event in the world, but the problems are almost always very limited in scope, meaning one or two concepts apply to that problem. Real world problems as suggested in the readings immediately bring to my mind scenarios that are broad in scope, many different physical principles must be applied in the correct order to solve the problem. Selecting the correct physical principles and deciding how to apply them in the proper order is a daunting task even for the very best student. Most of the time the student will give up and feel crushed by the problem. Thus it is important to offer a series of problems that are relatively straight forward that allows the students to apply 1 or 2 principles at a time to build confidence. After considerable practice, only then is it possible to offer a problem that involves several principles at once, but even then most students will consider such problems to be very difficult.

Knowing the difficulties the students will encounter I set about to construct a real world problem. The first question to ask and answer is what physical principles did I want the students to use. The next step is to think carefully about how to write the problem to ensure it is limited to the selected principles and does not lead into or morph into something far more difficult than intended. In the problem I selected I limited the principles to basic projectile motion, but this “is” the real world so error analysis must be considered. Probably not realized by most people, in Physics, most of the time real world scenarios are modeled using an ideal world. For example in the ideal world there may be no friction, but in the real word friction does exists. Often it is helpful and sometimes necessary to model a simplified ideal world to better understand what is happening in the real world, precisely because the real world is very complex. The problem I designed requires the students follow the process a physicists would use, first start in the ideal world to better understand the real world problem.

My main concern is most students are not practiced at modeling an ideal world and may find the problem I have designed for them to be too difficult largely because they are unable to break it down into an ideal problem. By the time they get to the problem they will have practiced in the ideal world each principle needed to solve the problem. But will their conceptual understanding of the principles be sufficient for them to proceed through the comprehensive critical thinking process to find a solution to the problem? I believe I have limited the scope of the problem sufficiently to allow the students to solve the problem, but I really don’t know how the students will react until they try it.

The first time I will be able to assign this problem will be about two weeks into the start of the 08 fall semester. I plan to assign the problem about three weeks before it is due. At that time the students will not have covered all the topics in class needed to solve the problem. During the two weeks that follow the assignment, all necessary topics will be covered. Hopefully the students will be thinking about the problem as the relevant topics are covered in class.

Improving schools with technology:

It would be interesting to conduct a survey to determine if the general public is in agreement that schools should be using the latest technology. I suspect the results of the survey would be that a significant percentage, perhaps more than 70 %, will agree that technology needs to be in the schools. But believing that technology should be in the schools is far easier than actually getting the technology into the schools. The goal is laudable but reaching the goal is a challenge that involves many factors.

If technology is to be incorporated into the classroom, the building that houses the classroom must be looked at. The current state of the 'backbone', the necessary wiring and junction box equipment to support the technology, of a building needs to be examined and a determination made as to how much work is needed to upgrade the building. Were I work I have seen the transition from electric typewriters to computer workstations with wireless printing. To accomplish this the building needed to be modified. Literally miles of wiring, fiber optics, and supporting equipment were installed over an extended period of time stretching into years. Obviously this process requires careful long range planning.

It is the teachers who will incorporate technology into the curriculum. This will not just happen, to accomplish the goal of incorporating technology into the classroom the factors of time, money, support, and stability are necessary ingredients to ensure that the process of integration is cost efficient and educationally sound.

The classroom teacher must be given the time to vet current technology to determine which technology to use and how to incorporate the technology into the classroom and time to develop the curriculum. The amount of time is going to vary from teacher to teacher, or class to class depending on how much technology is incorporated into the classroom. The extend of technology integration in an art class is different than a chemistry class. The classroom teacher with access to various professional sources of advice can make a sound judgment as to how much technology should be incorporated into their classroom

Money of course is in tight supply in most schools districts. Where does the money come from to the buy the technology? And where does the money come from to support the teachers “time” to incorporate the technology into the curriculum? There are no easy answers to these questions. An important component in the answers to the questions is stability. High teacher turnover is a problem. Teachers who stay with a school district can learn how to advocate for the technology they need and as money comes available to buy the technology and they can spend the time needed to develop the necessary curriculum. From start to finish the complete process may take two or three years depending on the depth and breath of integration. For districts that experience high turn over, the process of integration is obviously interrupted.

Support for technology integration is more than just time and money, it is a commitment by the school board, administration, and community to work toward providing the resources needed to build an infrastructure that supports and maintains technology. Computers are part of the technology equation. To support computers there must be personal in place within the district dedicated to maintaining the computers, software and printers. It is helpful to have people on hand to respond to problems as they arise, or at the very least have funds available to hire outside help. Computers are one type of technology that requires specific knowledge to repair them; different types of technology will require different and specific knowledge.

Discussion of the MILE Guide Assessment

Background,

I work for a very large and complex technical college district called Madison Area Technical College (MATC).  MATC is one of 16 districts throughout the state of Wisconsin.  MATC covers all or parts of 12 counties in south central Wisconsin with 5 campuses scattered in different counties.  The largest and main campus call Truax is located in Madison, this is where I work.  There are three other small campuses in Madison and there are outreach adult education centers in about forty local school districts.  Altogether the college serves about 50,000 students.

The college offers over 90 one and two year technical and associate degree programs and over 20 apprenticeship programs.  Another very important component of the college is the college transfer program.  In effect the college transfer program is a sort of junior college or two year college, students can take courses at MATC and transfer the credits to the University of Wisconsin or elsewhere.  Students in the programs can and do take college transfer classes.

The college is so large and so complex that in some cases I only have a limited knowledge as to what is happening elsewhere in the college and I have been here for nearly 24 years.  I do however belong to a committee that determines how funding is distributed among the various education centers of the college.  This gives me a unique perspective on how the college operates.

The survey:

Responding accurately to the MILE Guide Online Survey was a little tricky for me.  The survey is clearly designed for K-12 and often talked about parents working with the school district administrators and teachers.  Well here many of our students are parents!  So I tried to answer the questions based on my knowledge of the area of the college I work and also my experience working on the budget committee.  Even so some of my answers are on the guesswork side.

Here are the results of the survey:

"In the 21st Century stage - you have successfully integrated 21st Century Skills into you school and are working towards continual implementation.  The roles of your stakeholders are constantly changing to meet local and ongoing needs of you school.  You have a vision for you school and students, teachers, administrators, parents and the community work towards this common vision."

Next steps:

Two of the next steps as recommended by the survey are as follows:

*Collaborate with outside partners.

*Plan collectively and strategically for the future.

Collaboration comments:

Collaboration with outside partners occurs in every program.  The faculty and appropriate administrators of a program meet on a regular basis with an "advisory committee" to review and assess all aspects of a program.  The advisory committee is composed of members of the community who are directly involved in the program in some way.  For example the dental assistant program"advisory committee" would consist of dentists, dental assistants with work experience and others connected with dentistry in some way.  Everyone has direct experience and they understand the expectations of dental assistants when they enter the work force.  The advisory committee guides the structure of the program to ensure the students obtaining the proper education.

Planning comments:

Planning collectively and strategically for the future is ongoing.  For an institution so large and complex as the college, it could be very easy for the needs of a single teacher to get lost or run over by the needs of so many others. but amazingly this does not happen.  The key to success in hearing the needs of everyone is a clearly defined process.  We do have a process at MATC that allows for each voice to be heard.  It starts with small units.  For example I teach physics in the physical science department composed of 6 full-time faculty and 2 - 3 part time faculty.  Each year our department develops a plan that includes a budget for equipment as well as any activity associated with teaching and learning such as developing a new course, or new curriculum, or updating a lab manual.  The department plan moves to the next level and is incorporated with other plans from other departments that comprise a learning center called Arts and Sciences.  There are several learning centers at the college.  Funding requests and other needs for each learning center are combined and considered by appropriate inclusive committees.  Not all requests can be funded as expected and thus request for funding must be prioritized and the higher priority requests are funded.  If components of a department plan are not funded, there is a good chance of funding in the future as long as the request remains in the department plan from one year to the next.

All important decisions are made by committees.  All committees are inclusive, that is, they are composed of administrators, faculty, and other units of the college such as information technology and facilities.  This ensures that all stakeholders have a voice in decision making.  Faculty are an important voice in this process.