Assignment:
Part 1
Problem-based learning requires students to use prior knowledge in order to retain new information. I like problem-based learning and the way it can reflect on a real-world situation from the new information. If the problem mirrors situations that students will encounter in their future occupations, PBL also develops career realism as well as skills (Bridges, 1992).
Since higher education requires a deeper understanding and ability to retain new information in relation to information already present, it can be very helpful for problem-solving. Since the PBL is allowing you to test your learning by doing, it fits into a higher education classroom setting.
An example of PBL is having students design a school with new content areas, grading and community involvement. This problem-based learning allows students to find various solutions to a real-world problem while using existing knowledge to contrast just what and how they would design their own school. Since we are in an educational setting, the students are able to focus attention on their own beliefs and values in what they deem as important and relevant to education settings. Everyone has an opinion on what schools should teach and how they should, what better way than to get students to focus on what goes into school management.
References:
Nilson, L. (2010). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors (3rd ed.).
Part 2
In your readings, you explored several real-world, problem-solving ways of learning. Each technique has its own unique criteria and advantage in the higher education classroom. Choose one of the problem-solving techniques and explain how it can be used in your higher education classroom. Be sure to include real-world examples and suggested activities to add depth and discussion to your topic.
A part of meeting the needs of adult learners requires that the instructor is providing instructional materials that are important and relevant to real-world problems. Adult learners are highly intrinsically motivated to engage in work that is self-directed, brings a variety of experience, and allows them to shift quickly from theory to application. Problem-based learning requires students to be active. Students who are actively engaged in the educational process make substantive connections with course content (Nilson, 2010). Through Problem based-learning the students will have the opportunities to synthesize materials to create possible situations to problems they could experience in their careers.
It is important that professors must engage students in problem-based learning it reinforces the need and skills of problem-solving. The skill of problem-solving you would think that many adults learners have fully mastered this skill. In fact, many adult students present Lack of Perseverance and Losing confidence and admitting in giving up quickly when challenging problems arise in the classroom (Nilson, 2010). Problem-based learning will be an appropriate problem-solving technique that could be used in the higher education learning environment because it helps the students: visualize the problem, describe the problem in writing and state its principles and concepts, plan a solution and execute the plan, then lastly check and evaluate the solution they came up with.
For example, to continue to build on a course that enables students to articulate their own cultural experiences, rules, and biases in order to recognize how they respond and interact with people from other cultures. I would present a lesson that highlights political leaders of the civil rights movement to assess the students' understanding of the effects of social justice. The students will have research and interview people/groups that involve/work with the civil rights movement and discuss the impact on their lives. Then they will have to come up with a current problem that relates to a historical problem and state the impact of it then and now. Then come up with a reasonable and practical solution that can resolve this issue.
Reference
Nilson, L. (2010). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors (3rd ed.).