The major hindrance that I can visualize occurring with my PBL lesson is the student’s ability to understand that there is more than one correct answer. As pointed out in Egbert Chapter 6 “students have been trained to think that problem solving is getting the one right answer (163).” When writing their own persuasive editorial many students may feel that they can’t out-argue a professional writer. Students may feel that they didn’t leave any room for debate in their editorials and since it has been printed online or in a newspaper that their point of view must be the only correct point of view. This is especially true with middle school students who are still very easily influenced.
As with any project there is always the pressure of standardized testing. With a tightly packed curriculum that requires every standard to be taught in the most efficient method possible objectives from administrators, other teachers, or the community might easily arise when a student is assigned a project that will more than likely double the time scheduled to spend on that standard. (Egbert, 187) A third challenge that will also occur in most PBL tasks is the teacher’s ability to scaffold the project. (Egbert, 187) Since this project will require all students to create the same final project it will be very important that proper modifications are in place throughout the project to help differentiate instruction for learners. It is difficult to know how much scaffolding should take place without interfering with the student’s ability to learn how to implement persuasive writing in the real world.
Egbert, J. (2009). Supporting learning with technology: Essentials of classroom practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson-Prentice Hall
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15 years ago
Allowing for more than 1 right answer is so difficult. Students are programmed to want to get 100% and get everything perfect. They don't realize that sometimes the process of attempting to get to the answer is the most important thing--whether they get the answer right or not.
ReplyDeleteIt is so hard to decide whether to cover a standard in the most time efficient manner possible or to take longer and make it more engaging. DST definitely fits into the second category. My students would learn so much from it and would probably retain the knowledge much longer, but I am not sure that administrators and parents would approve of the extra time that it would take.
ReplyDeleteYes!! Students look for that one correct answer and they want to find it immediately, they seem to struggle with inferences. This "high stakes testing" has hampered the spontaneous aspects of teaching and learning.
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