5 Steps to PBL-Enhanced Professional Development
Copyright 2003 Miguel Guhlin
“We’d like to try something different,” John began, “since
we’ve
already done this type of training before. It would be repetitious to do
it the same way, they don’t seem that interested.” I knew exactly
what he meant. We’ve all given this type of staff development in the past.
Here’s
what the day looks like:
1) As a large group, let’s discuss what policy and leadership is.
2) Divide up into group and discuss one of the following topics using
these web-based resources as sources of information.
3) Choose a topic and use some technology tool to develop your response
and share it with others.
4) And, so it goes on and on....
Problem-based learning, however, provides a different approach you can
take. It focuses you on an ill-structured problem. The story, the characters
in
the story, all come from the experiences of your students and real life.
Follow
these steps to enhancing professional development through the use of
PBL. Even if you
don’t adhere to the strict process or flow of problem-based learning,
you will have transformed the experience for your adult learners. . .and these
days,
that can be the difference. The difference between another boring presentation
people gulp coffee to stay awake in to a transformative experience.
1) CRAFTING A TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE
When working with John, the first step was to map out what it was we
wanted our students—all adult learners—to learn. We could have used Inspiration,
but John was a bit skeptical about the use of this approach, so we grabbed
the nearest whiteboard. We began to write on the board, asking ourselves questions
such as,
— What did we really want them to learn?
— Why was it important that they learn this?
— What problems or issues would they be able to resolve with the information?
— What process, if any, did we want them to follow? Was that process governed
by policy? Which ones in particular?
As we organized our thoughts on the whiteboard, our next concern was
to ensure that the stakeholders were considered. Stakeholders, as
you know,
include
anyone who has a stake in getting a problem resolved. We asked ourselves, “Who
is affected by the information we’re sharing, by the solutions that will
be developed?” Of course, it’s also important to discuss who will
develop the solution. As soon as we finished the mapping, we were ready for
the next step of the process.
2) ENGAGING THE LEARNERS
Mapping the problem had been easy. We were now ready to move into
the phase of the process that is problematic for professional
development facilitators—writing
the engaging narrative, or, the problem. It is challenging since some do not
consider themselves good writers, or able to write a ficitional problem that
integrates the elements addressed by the graphic organizer in step 1.
“
What you have to remember, John,” I shared, “is that you are not
writing a fiction story exactly. You are writing a story that encapsulates the
issues, stakeholders in a way that grabs your learners.” From my perspective,
the writing of the story problem is the most exciting of all the steps. But,
it doesn’t have to be a written problem. You only write it if you lack
another medium to use and want to remain consistent. You could use radio, television,
video-record yourself or use a skit to introduce the problem elements.
Another important point about the problem engagement, or story,
is ensuring that you have a “real life” person affected. That does not mean
put someone alive in the story, but to make sure your main character is the
one who has to
solve the real life problem. Whether it is a principal, a teacher, a parent
or student, it should be someone who will best come alive for your adult learners.
For a group of principals, the protagonist should be a principal. For a group
of parents, it should be a parent or child. You can always shift the focus
of
the story so long as the key elements that you want them to learn are present.
3) FACILITATING THE PROCESS OF PROBLEM-SOLVING
After we had finished mapping the experience we would be working
through, and crafting the narrative, I realized that John
was still skeptical.
He couldn’t
see how we were going to move from the map to real life professional
development session. “What do I do at the beginning?” he
asked.
In traditional professional development, we are so caught
up in what happens after the introductions, in setting
the stage
and
sharing
what people are
going to learn today from us, that we miss the point.
Adult learners arrive with
one set of expectations, you have another, and sometimes,
we are frightened into “getting
down to business” that we miss the opportunity. We
miss the excitement.
To help him understand what his adult learners would
be going through, I decided to ease the process of facilitation
by
modeling the first
few moments
for him.
Modeling the first engagement of the problem was important
for John. It enabled him to see the potential energy
in
the PBL Approach.
First, I asked him to read the problem. Then, I asked him the question, “What hunches do you have about this problem?” Hunches are intuitive guesses we have about the problem. They are what we think may occur or be the motivations for some of the stakeholders in the problem story. After we jotted these down on another whiteboard (although you can easily use a word processor, flip chart), we were ready for the next piece. Before moving on, I stepped back out of facilitative role and pointed out that their guesses had hit on the main issues in the problem. This is an important piece because it tells us our story involved us in the manner we hoped it would.
The next thing was to write down everything we knew for certain in the problem. For example, you might phrase it this way, “What do we know for certain about the problem?” This is a wonderful approach because, now that we’ve gotten the hunches out of the way, we’re ready to focus in on th problem. No guesses or hunches are allowed. We are strictly “in the text.” These are the facts of the matter and are critical to solving the problem.
After we’ve nailed down the facts, we ask, “What questions can we ask that will get us the information we need to help the protagonist solve the problem?” Of course, one never says protagonist. By this time, everyone is using the protagonist’s first name. A list of questions is produced. An exciting activity, the question generation shows how engaged your audience is. It is often the “proof” that those reluctant to use Problem-based Learning as a staff development technique need to experience to see its efficacy. Before you move on to the final activity, be sure to prioritize—with the group—the most important questions.
The final activity in facilitating the problem-solving
is to have them identify all the potential stakeholders.
This
last
piece allows
them
to see the big
picture, not just try to solve problems from a narrow
point of view. It fosters empathy,
and being able to view a problem from multiple perspectives.
At the end of this activity, you have a list of potential
stakeholders. Using the
stakeholders
as
a guide, divide the class into stakeholder groups.
It is from these
perspectives that the class will explore the issues.
4) ORGANIZING THE RESEARCH
A tremendous amount of work was accomplished in the
first few hours of professional development. Depending
on the
length of your problem,
the
third step of enhancing
professional development could have taken 1-4 hours.
Now, you
will notice the benefits of PBL Approach among your
adult learners. Not one of them—honest—is
falling asleep. All are self-engaged, almost driven, to solve the difficult,
no easy solutions problem that “sprang” from
the mapping activity in step 1.
Yet, as you move forward, this is the step when you can take advantage of technological tools. You can use treasure hunt or subject sampler type activities (http://www.ozline.com) to organize the resources for your learners. You can take advantage of online resources such as Digital Knowledge Central (the replacement for the Texas Library Connection) with access to research, or a digital video distribution system. Whatever resources—books, newspapers, online—the point is that they have to find the most effective way of doing their research.
At this time, you can introduce new techie tools, graphic organizers, information problem-solving strategies (like Big6). Whatever the process is, make sure that your adult learners keep track of what process they are going through. You’ll want to evaluate its effectiveness later.
5) SHARING POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Now that your adult learners have spent some time doing
research, working through the information they
needed to develop a
possible solution,
ask them to share
what they have come up with. More importantly,
ask them to first develop criteria for what would be an
effective
solution
as a
group. Use this
criteria to assess
the solutions that are brought forth, as well as
what process they followed in information problem-solving.
This feedback is important for adult learners and allows them to fine-tune the solutions they develop. The wonder of the PBL approach as employed with adult learners is that they will no perceive your workshop as a long, boring exploration of a topic at the periphery of consciousness. They will not sit in your class problem-solving the real life challenges they face, or will encounter, back at their campus. Instead, you will have tapped into their creative energies, engaging them, making them feel as if they, not you, had planned out the experience.
Having done both types of professional development, I now find that anything less than PBL is just a transfer of information that may or may not actually become a part of my problem-solving tools. Like my friend John, you may be skeptical of the approach. Go ahead and try it. If you sense a lot more energy in the group, you will know you have tapped into the process.
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