Journal of the Effective Schools Project, Volume 18, 2011 Page: 45
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the change in the students' learn-
ing could be contributed to two
things: ownership and engage-
ment. As Heidi Jacobs (1994) stat-
ed in Curriculum 21, students will
have more of an intrinsic motiva-
tion for learning if they feel they
have ownership in their learning
and there is an authentic means of
assessment beyond the grade. That
was the realization I came to about
the changes in my students. Their
motivational state had changed
from extrinsic (grades) to intrinsic
(ownership, pride, and personal
fulfillment).
By this point, I am sure that I have
some veteran elementary teachers
reading this article and giving me
the "yeah rights" and the "let's see
him do that with 22 five-year-olds
that cannot even walk a straight
line." Possibly, some veteran sec-
ondary teachers are giving me the
typical grumblings of, "You want
problem-based learning? Come
look at my 3rd period class....I got
all the problems you want." I un-
derstand your feeling because you
have outlasted the educational fads
of the 1970's, 80's, 90's, and be-
yond. You have heard the tired old
story about every new strategy or
testing technique that is going to
solve all the problems in educa-
tion. But, I can assure you the root
of my thought process for this did
not come from some educational
researcher, even though I am sure
there is one out there who has a
book about it and is making more
money than all of us combined,
but has never been in a classroom.
My inspiration came from multiple
elementary classrooms I visited
that used the problem based learn-
ing approach and authentic assess-
ment processes. For example, one
particular classroom teacher creat-
ed multiple classroom centers thatallowed the students to work out
problems by themselves or with a
peer while the teacher monitored
the activities in the room. The
learning environment involved
approximately 20 problem-based
centers that addressed multiple
learning styles and ability levels.
Some centers required the student
to build or construct an item while
others required the student to ex-
press his/her thoughts about a par-
ticular book or activity. Either
way, the student was collecting
information and using it to create a
solution to an authentic problem
without the teacher's direct help. I
was amazed. I had always won-
dered if problem-based learning
could be conducted in the early
years of school and here was a
classroom not just doing it, but
succeeding at it.
Now, I think it is important to note
that I believe in the elementary
grade levels the traditional defini-
tion of problem or project-based
learning has to be tweaked to ac-
commodate the lack of foundation-
al knowledge; however the under-
lying main concepts of this instruc-
tional method can be introduced. I
have come to this belief because I
have a hard time visualizing or
even comprehending a full prob-
lem or project-based elementary
school established on the tradition-
al project/problem-based frame-
works established by the Buck In-
stitution for Education or even the
more current Manor New Tech
High School in Austin, Texas.
However, I think we could take
some of the underlying main con-
cepts and begin to introduce them
to build a stronger foundation of
future learning.
About 4 years ago, my role in the
Bluff Dale Schools (BISD)I had always wondered if
problem-based learning
could be conducted in
the early years of school,
and here was a classroom
not just doing it, but
succeeding at it.45
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Tarleton State University. Effective Schools Project. Journal of the Effective Schools Project, Volume 18, 2011, periodical, 2011; Stephenville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth201694/m1/49/: accessed May 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.