advantages and disadvantages of problem solving method in education

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5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Problem-Based Learning [+ Activity Design Steps]

Written by Marcus Guido

• Teaching Strategies

• Advantages of Problem-Based Learning
• Disadvantages of Problem-Based Learning
• Steps to Designing Problem-Based Learning Activities

Used since the 1960s, many teachers express concerns about the effectiveness of problem-based learning (PBL) in certain classroom settings.

Whether you introduce the student-centred pedagogy as a one-time activity or mainstay exercise, grouping students together to solve open-ended problems can present pros and cons.

Below are five advantages and disadvantages of problem-based learning to help you determine if it can work in your classroom.

If you decide to introduce an activity, there are also design creation steps and a downloadable guide to keep at your desk for easy reference.

1. Development of Long-Term Knowledge Retention

Students who participate in problem-based learning activities can improve their abilities to retain and recall information, according to a literature review of studies about the pedagogy .

The literature review states “elaboration of knowledge at the time of learning” -- by sharing facts and ideas through discussion and answering questions -- “enhances subsequent retrieval.” This form of elaborating reinforces understanding of subject matter , making it easier to remember.

Small-group discussion can be especially beneficial -- ideally, each student will get chances to participate.

But regardless of group size, problem-based learning promotes long-term knowledge retention by encouraging students to discuss -- and answer questions about -- new concepts as they’re learning them.

2. Use of Diverse Instruction Types

You can use problem-based learning activities to the meet the diverse learning needs and styles of your students, effectively engaging a diverse classroom in the process. In general, grouping students together for problem-based learning will allow them to:

• Address real-life issues that require real-life solutions, appealing to students who struggle to grasp abstract concepts
• Participate in small-group and large-group learning, helping students who don’t excel during solo work grasp new material
• Talk about their ideas and challenge each other in a constructive manner, giving participatory learners an avenue to excel
• Tackle a problem using a range of content you provide -- such as videos, audio recordings, news articles and other applicable material -- allowing the lesson to appeal to distinct learning styles

Since running a problem-based learning scenario will give you a way to use these differentiated instruction approaches , it can be especially worthwhile if your students don’t have similar learning preferences.

3. Continuous Engagement

Providing a problem-based learning challenge can engage students by acting as a break from normal lessons and common exercises.

It’s not hard to see the potential for engagement, as kids collaborate to solve real-world problems that directly affect or heavily interest them.

Although conducted with post-secondary students, a study published by the Association for the Study of Medical Education reported increased student attendance to -- and better attitudes towards -- courses that feature problem-based learning.

These activities may lose some inherent engagement if you repeat them too often, but can certainly inject excitement into class.

4. Development of Transferable Skills

Problem-based learning can help students develop skills they can transfer to real-world scenarios, according to a 2015 book that outlines theories and characteristics of the pedagogy .

The tangible contexts and consequences presented in a problem-based learning activity “allow learning to become more profound and durable.” As you present lessons through these real-life scenarios, students should be able to apply learnings if they eventually face similar issues.

For example, if they work together to address a dispute within the school, they may develop lifelong skills related to negotiation and communicating their thoughts with others.

As long as the problem’s context applies to out-of-class scenarios, students should be able to build skills they can use again.

5. Improvement of Teamwork and Interpersonal Skills

Successful completion of a problem-based learning challenge hinges on interaction and communication, meaning students should also build transferable skills based on teamwork and collaboration . Instead of memorizing facts, they get chances to present their ideas to a group, defending and revising them when needed.

What’s more, this should help them understand a group dynamic. Depending on a given student, this can involve developing listening skills and a sense of responsibility when completing one’s tasks. Such skills and knowledge should serve your students well when they enter higher education levels and, eventually, the working world.

1. Potentially Poorer Performance on Tests

Devoting too much time to problem-based learning can cause issues when students take standardized tests, as they may not have the breadth of knowledge needed to achieve high scores. Whereas problem-based learners develop skills related to collaboration and justifying their reasoning, many tests reward fact-based learning with multiple choice and short answer questions. Despite offering many advantages, you could spot this problem develop if you run problem-based learning activities too regularly.

2. Student Unpreparedness

Problem-based learning exercises can engage many of your kids, but others may feel disengaged as a result of not being ready to handle this type of exercise for a number of reasons. On a class-by-class and activity-by-activity basis, participation may be hindered due to:

• Immaturity  -- Some students may not display enough maturity to effectively work in a group, not fulfilling expectations and distracting other students.
• Unfamiliarity  -- Some kids may struggle to grasp the concept of an open problem, since they can’t rely on you for answers.
• Lack of Prerequisite Knowledge  -- Although the activity should address a relevant and tangible problem, students may require new or abstract information to create an effective solution.

You can partially mitigate these issues by actively monitoring the classroom and distributing helpful resources, such as guiding questions and articles to read. This should keep students focused and help them overcome knowledge gaps. But if you foresee facing these challenges too frequently, you may decide to avoid or seldom introduce problem-based learning exercises.

3. Teacher Unpreparedness

If supervising a problem-based learning activity is a new experience, you may have to prepare to adjust some teaching habits . For example, overtly correcting students who make flawed assumptions or statements can prevent them from thinking through difficult concepts and questions. Similarly, you shouldn’t teach to promote the fast recall of facts. Instead, you should concentrate on:

• Giving hints to help fix improper reasoning
• Questioning student logic and ideas in a constructive manner
• Distributing content for research and to reinforce new concepts
• Asking targeted questions to a group or the class, focusing their attention on a specific aspect of the problem

Depending on your teaching style, it may take time to prepare yourself to successfully run a problem-based learning lesson.

4. Time-Consuming Assessment

If you choose to give marks, assessing a student’s performance throughout a problem-based learning exercise demands constant monitoring and note-taking. You must take factors into account such as:

• Completed tasks
• The quality of those tasks
• The group’s overall work and solution
• Communication among team members
• Anything you outlined on the activity’s rubric

Monitoring these criteria is required for each student, making it time-consuming to give and justify a mark for everyone.

5. Varying Degrees of Relevancy and Applicability

It can be difficult to identify a tangible problem that students can solve with content they’re studying and skills they’re mastering. This introduces two clear issues. First, if it is easy for students to divert from the challenge’s objectives, they may miss pertinent information. Second, you could veer off the problem’s focus and purpose as students run into unanticipated obstacles. Overcoming obstacles has benefits, but may compromise the planning you did. It can also make it hard to get back on track once the activity is complete. Because of the difficulty associated with keeping activities relevant and applicable, you may see problem-based learning as too taxing.

If the advantages outweigh the disadvantages -- or you just want to give problem-based learning a shot -- follow these steps:

1. Identify an Applicable Real-Life Problem

Find a tangible problem that’s relevant to your students, allowing them to easily contextualize it and hopefully apply it to future challenges. To identify an appropriate real-world problem, look at issues related to your:

• Students’ shared interests

You must also ensure that students understand the problem and the information around it. So, not all problems are appropriate for all grade levels.

2. Determine the Overarching Purpose of the Activity

Depending on the problem you choose, determine what you want to accomplish by running the challenge. For example, you may intend to help your students improve skills related to:

• Collaboration
• Problem-solving
• Curriculum-aligned topics
• Processing diverse content

A more precise example, you may prioritize collaboration skills by assigning specific tasks to pairs of students within each team. In doing so, students will continuously develop communication and collaboration abilities by working as a couple and part of a small group. By defining a clear purpose, you’ll also have an easier time following the next step.

3. Create and Distribute Helpful Material

Handouts and other content not only act as a set of resources, but help students stay focused on the activity and its purpose. For example, if you want them to improve a certain math skill , you should make material that highlights the mathematical aspects of the problem. You may decide to provide items such as:

• Data that helps quantify and add context to the problem
• Videos, presentations and other audio-visual material
• A list of preliminary questions to investigate

Providing a range of resources can be especially important for elementary students and struggling students in higher grades, who may not have self-direction skills to work without them.

4. Set Goals and Expectations for Your Students

Along with the aforementioned materials, give students a guide or rubric that details goals and expectations. It will allow you to further highlight the purpose of the problem-based learning exercise, as you can explain what you’re looking for in terms of collaboration, the final product and anything else. It should also help students stay on track by acting as a reference throughout the activity.

5. Participate

Although explicitly correcting students may be discouraged, you can still help them and ask questions to dig into their thought processes. When you see an opportunity, consider if it’s worthwhile to:

• Fill gaps in knowledge
• Provide hints, not answers
• Question a student’s conclusion or logic regarding a certain point, helping them think through tough spots

By participating in these ways, you can provide insight when students need it most, encouraging them to effectively analyze the problem.

6. Have Students Present Ideas and Findings

If you divided them into small groups, requiring students to present their thoughts and results in front the class adds a large-group learning component to the lesson. Encourage other students to ask questions, allowing the presenting group to elaborate and provide evidence for their thoughts. This wraps up the activity and gives your class a final chance to find solutions to the problem.

Wrapping Up

The effectiveness of problem-based learning may differ between classrooms and individual students, depending on how significant specific advantages and disadvantages are to you. Evaluative research consistently shows value in giving students a question and letting them take control of their learning. But the extent of this value can depend on the difficulties you face.It may be wise to try a problem-based learning activity, and go forward based on results.

Create or log into your teacher account on Prodigy -- an adaptive math game that adjusts content to accommodate player trouble spots and learning speeds. Aligned to US and Canadian curricula, it’s used by more than 350,000 teachers and 10 million students. It may be wise to try a problem-based learning activity, and go forward based on results.

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• Education and Beyond

Problem Based Learning Advantages and Disadvantages

Problem based learning is a technique of learning where the students learn about the subjects through conceptual problem solving mechanisms.

It is open ended in nature and can be used by a wide number of students at the same time. Problem based learning was first originated from McMaster University and has since then spread through many parts of the world, like Europe and Asia.

Students are required to solve a question by using concepts and skills and discuss how they can use these for further purposes.

Structure of Problem Based Learning (PBL):

PBL can have many forms according to Atherton J.S (2005). A good PBL can have the following factors:

• Problems should associate with real life problems.
• Unlike the normal method learning, where students try to solve questions based on the available knowledge that they have received; In PBL, students try to solve questions without any prior knowledge, and they can find answers through the exploration of several options provided by the question.
• At the beginning of the learning process, problems are given to the students in the form of PBL intentionally.
• Problem based learning should support studying through effective teamwork and that it should alliance friendly, that is, the problem should study in such a manner that each aspect of the question should be divided among the team so that everyone can gain from it.
• The teacher becomes a coordinator who acts as a supervisor, a source guide and becomes an advisor for the students.
• Problem based learning requires lots of time, and each PBL should give time for the students to learn and participate.
• PBL is most effective if it crosses multi-disciplinary disciplines. This helps PBL to be effective in a large number of areas.

Why Problem-Based Learning (PBL)?

A PBL course design in such a way to provide students with authentic, hands-on real life problems and practices that encourage students to think outside the box.

The students grouped to form groups that usually supervise by the teacher or any teaching associate from their respective departments.

In traditional learning methods, pupils often burden by the topics they teach and the whole studying experience becomes boring and cumbersome.

Moreover, students expect to study and memorize topics, which do not even seem relevant to the day to day life activities. This makes studying just a mere tool for getting a job and nothing more.

Students don’t feel any enthusiasm towards studying and do not show any interest in taking the initiative to study what teaches in the classroom.

The main reason for this issue is that no effective discussions are going on within the classroom about the topics, and the students cannot share their ideas on how they can use a certain topic that they studied and apply it to real-life problems.

The main advantage of PBL is that it makes the whole learning experience interesting. PBL is a challenging program because they need to understand the design of the organization and how it works by the motivation of the whole team.

The information provided is apparent; the students feel a need to search for information when they solve and discuss problems. Hence students can feel genuinely interested in learning.

Types of PBL:

There are mainly 3 types of PBL. Those are:

1. Problem stimulated PBL (PS PBL):

PS PBL uses relevant knowledge and information to solve problems. These are used to emphasize the three basic goals:

• Development of domain specific skills.
• Development of problem solving skill.
• Interpretation of domain-specific knowledge

2. Student centered PBL (SC PBL):

SC PBL has the same factor as PS PBL, and it also adds one more factor; updating life-long skills. This factor is beneficial for people who have been teaching and practicing in a certain filed, for a long time.

Constantly updating their skill set is important. This applies to individuals such as doctors, engineers, and executive professionals.

3. Case-based PBL :

Determine what type of solution present, what should use to solve the given scenario and focus and stress on that topic to study.

Search for alternative methods and see how the scenario can solve more efficiently. This method also knows as learning by design.

How Does PBL Work?

The first step in PBL is setting up groups. These groups consist of a group of students, a supervisor or a consultant and they usually discuss what scenario they are facing, i.e the problem presented.

The problems presented can vary from a well organized structure in an economic aspect to discussing medical issues and emergencies.

Hence it develops your ability for self-studying and keeps you ready for an emergency or any crisis.

PBL doesn’t advocate memorizing topics since the topics that studied understood and interpreted in such a way that it should use to solve the scenario presented.

PBL constitute of different phases, these are:

First, the group will discuss what they already know. This can write down and reflect upon. Then discuss the problem present, point out what all scenarios are surrounding the given scheme.

Hence, agreement on what kind of problem it is made. Furthermore, this analysis decides what different aspects of the plot should be studied and investigated.

The problems all take as assumptions at first and are clear accordingly when new knowledge and information found.

The next method for solving the problem deciding what all factors should require to solve the problem. That comes under the heading “ What do we need to know about the problem?” .

Point out what all factors are there, which needs to solve to finish the problem.

In this process, the group divide into different subgroups and each sub-group is concentrating on the different factors needed. This is called a brainstorming session .

The new and previously understood ideas share within the group, by writing down the points found, on a whiteboard or a paper, where everyone can see. This process can further develop by systematically outlining the result.

This phase requires the individuals to discuss the various hypothesis that presented, and how they can be solved. This comes under the heading, “ what should we do?” .

With the given information, keep track of what all books should read, who to consult about the acquire information, what books to follow about the plot.

This method encourages the group to identify and follow the different study techniques.

Students expect to collect information from various sources such as videos, books, interviews, journals and the group supposes to meet at regular intervals to discuss the usefulness of the solutions acquire and how it should use to solve the problem.

Advantages of Problem Based Learning:

• PBL replaces the traditional lectures with assistive learning, facultative mentoring, discussions and on site experience. This promotes deep learning within the individual. Hence the students’ knowledge grows as more and more discussions are made.
• Direct teaching is reduced. This promotes students to take up their initiative in learning. This increases the feeling of motivation within the student. Hence, making the learning experience more interesting.
• Problem based learning requires prior knowledge for the completion of problems. Hence, constant updation and revision of basic knowledge are done. This keeps the student more firm in the basic foundation of the subject.
• Problem based thinking often stimulates critical thinking . The students try to think about the various aspects of the project rather than following what teach through lectures. The students pursue to think about how, where and why aspect of the problems introduced.
• Problem based learners tend to be more skilled and competent in collecting information than traditional learners. This is because traditional learners tend to only stick to books that prescribe in the curriculum and they do not try to explore various sources. On the other hand, problem based learners tend to be more practical and PBL encourages them to think outside the box.
• PBL relate to life based skills and practices, hence these skills can also transfer to individuals through proper training and practices. Therefore, such skills can act as an aid in real life situations like in corporate jobs or the medical field.
• The problems introduced in the PBL curriculum are all open-ended questions. This gives room for more discussions and understanding about the concepts and more data retrieval can be done. Moreover, such questions do not have a right or wrong answer. The most suitable and feasible answers take into consideration. Hence, there might also be a chance to have more than one answer to a question. This encourages individuals to study the facts more clearly.
• Another main factor of PBL is that it requires good communication skills . Pbl increases the social skills of the individuals as it involves the comparison of peer skills and also insightful discussions. There is no form of hierarchy, and all the individuals treat as same. This also makes the students develop their confrontational and persuasive skills.

Disadvantages of Problem Based Learning:

• A good problem based learning design requires a large amount of time and work. It requires constant monitoring and noting down the student throughout the process. This is a bit time consuming in nature since most of the questions asked are usually open-ended and it takes time to collect materials and information about it.
• Not all teachers can be good advisors, for PBL they need dedicated, hardworking and trained facilitators. Moreover, good PBL trainers are satisfying to work with and are self – motivational for the students and fellow teachers.
• Problem based learning requires more staff and more contact hours for preparation, discussion and comparison of answers. Students and the advisors supposed to do timely and seasonable meetings once in a while.
• It’s a known fact that PBL doesn’t provide that many facts when compared with the traditional method, so many of the teachers hesitant to take up this form of teaching. PBL is more suitable for subjects that do not require much prior knowledge about the subject. For example, for teaching literature or for using PBL in arts facilities.
• For the PBL curriculum to be effective, it requires multiple disciplines to integrate, so that the students can get different aspects of a situation. Hence, proper research and excessive amounts of an organization required. This makes it more time consumable and is not suitable for fast pace courses. The course also needs to validate before presenting it before the students.
• Assessing a certain student within a team is always tough for the coordinator. They have to consider different aspects such as the output obtained as a whole for the team, the level of enthusiasm shown by each individual, the activeness shown by a certain student. A clear assessment criterion or a standard for marking students in a group is always important.
• PBL is also difficult for the institution because they have to change the course depending upon the lecturer. Since the whole PBL curriculum is an image of their ideals and how they should train the students.
• More and more coordinators required to assess and guide students along the way and also they need people to create as many difficult situations as possible.

Problem based learning is also an essential way of teaching because it prepares the students on how to be ready to face the outside world and how to be an effective and valuable member of society. This also encourages others – the public to also be a part of the experience.

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The Pros and Cons of Problem-Based Learning

• Post author: Studocu
• Post published: July 9, 2019
• Reading time: 6 mins read

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Used since the 60s, many educators express concerns about the efficiency of PBL or problem-based learning in certain classroom settings.

Whether you come up with the student-centered pedagogy as a mainstay exercise or one-time activity, convincing students to solve open-ended problems can present its very own pros and cons. Below, we have discussed it in detail for your reference.

Problem-based learning- THE PROS

1. promotion of deep learning.

PBL replaces traditional lectures with facultative mentoring, assistive learning, discussions, and real-life experiences.

This helps in promoting deep learning within the individuals. Thus, students’ knowledge also grows as more and more discussions are made.

2. Developing retention of knowledge in the long term

According to a NCBI  literature review on pedagogy , students participating in PBL activities can improve their information retention and recalling ability at one and the same time.

The review states that the sharing of facts and ideas during class discussions can enhance its subsequent retrieval, thereby, making it easier for kids to remember them.

Small group discussions can thus, be particularly beneficial in this aspect, especially the ones in which every student gets his/her chance to speak.

3. Introduction to open-ended questions

Most of the problems introduced in PBL curriculum are open-ended question.

These give room for more and more discussions, data retrieval, and more and more understanding of the subject matter.

4. Improved teamwork and interpersonal skills

Successful completion of PBL challenges hinges firmly on communication and interaction. Meaning, instead of memorizing facts on their own, students get a chance to present them in front of a group, defending and revising them when required.

This helps a lot in building transferable skills based on teamwork and collaboration.

5. Opportunity to apply skills in the real world

Problem-based learning or PBL can help students develop skills that they can apply in real-world scenarios.

The tangible context of the subject matter presented in PBL activities can make the entire learning experience more durable and profound in the long term.

Problem-based learning- THE CONS

1. requires a lot of time and effort for implementation.

Good PBL curriculum implementations require a huge amount of time and work on the teachers’ end.

It also requires constant monitoring and recording of the performance of the student(s) throughout the process.

2. Poor performance in theoretical tests

Devoting too much time in PBL activities can create issues when students appear for standardized tests.

This is because they may not have the right breadth of knowledge to achieve high scores in such examination.

3. Integration of multiple disciplines

To make the PBL model a success, multiple disciples have to be integrated so students can understand the different aspects of a situation.

Hence, systematic organization and extensive research are required for proper PBL implementation.

4. Varying degrees of applicability and relevancy

It can be exceptionally difficult to identify a problem that can be tangible enough for students to solve in relevance to the content of their studies. This automatically introduces 2 issues.

One, if it’s easy for students to get distracted from the challenges presented by the problem, they may miss out on pertinent information.

Two, you can swerve off the focus and the purpose of the problem to make students run into abrupt obstacles. Overcoming them may has its benefits, but it can also compromise the initial planning which you did at the beginning of your lessons.

The effectiveness of PBL differs from individual students and classrooms depending on how significant the pros and cons appear to you.

If you think the pros outweigh the cons, you may go ahead with the plans without any further ado. If not, holding it might seem the better option.

Created by Sudipto Das for LearnPick

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Problem-Based Learning – Roles, Advantages & Best Practices

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What Is Problem-Based Learning (PBL)?

Why should we use problem-based learning, disadvantages, teacher’s role in pbl, student’s role in pbl, best practices to apply problem-based learning in the classroom, discover ishcmc’s learning and teaching approaches.

Problem-based learning is an effective learning method in which students can learn through real-life experience to develop desirable knowledge and skills. This method originated in medical education in the 1970s and was gradually adopted in other fields. The process allows learners to develop essential skills in modern education and encourages engagement.

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-focused process in which students learn about a specific subject by working in groups to resolve real-world problems. Students have an excellent opportunity to work independently before pairing up with others. It allows them to develop their critical thinking , problem-solving , and decision-making skills.

This approach adapts appropriate cases to stimulate mutual understanding and respect for others and increase the responsibility for self-learning. The process for each project is clearly defined so that students can easily follow.

With the rapid explosion of society, interdisciplinary knowledge requires students to integrate an abundance of information to handle all the issues and unforeseen challenges.

Problem-based learning is designed to raise problems at the beginning as a stimulus for learning. Then, students will attempt to solve it by engaging in research-related findings from various sources and experts in particular areas. The learners will fully understand and return to apply these findings to resolve the problem and acquire needed discipline-specific knowledge. This learning method makes students progressively responsible and increasingly independent in their education path.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Problem-Based Learning

Problem-based learning has been widely used since its introduction in medical school. Mentioned below are the benefits and limitations of this method:

When it comes to positive aspects, this teaching approach offers several benefits:

• Motivate lifelong learning: Enhance student-focused learning where students are encouraged to participate actively in their learning approach. It also enhances self-directed study for lifelong learning.
• Better understanding: Emphasize figuring out the real-life solution and comprehending higher levels of learning rather than the facts.
• Provoking transferable skills: The outcome of problem-based learning activities can be transferred to out-of-class scenarios when they encounter a similar matter.
• Reinforces critical thinking: Continuously research and evaluate solutions to facilitate questioning skills. Such skills serve as a framework for higher levels of education.
• Improve teamwork skills: Force students to collaborate in groups, allowing them to present their ideas and defend when needed.

Despite clear advantages, problem-based learning also presents notable challenges:

• Time-consuming: PBL requires time to analyze and assess related material and sources, leading to difficulties for those with tight schedules, especially when we need discussion and presentation.
• The risk of cognitive overload: This learning method requires students to explore and evaluate a large amount of information. When the learner lacks prior background, this can confuse and make them unable to prioritize keywords effectively.
• Skilled instructor: A competent teacher will allow students to be on the right track. The experienced teacher gives meaningful guidance and helps students achieve the desired outcome.
• Assessing student achievement: Traditional standardized tests may not measure skills and knowledge gained through PBL, such as critical thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving. Instructors must utilize alternative assessment methods such as peer learning , self-assessment, and practical examinations.

Teacher and Student Responsibilities in Problem-Based Learning

In PBL, both students and teachers have complementary responsibilities that contribute to learning success. Here are the overall roles of facilitators and learners:

In PBL, the teacher is a facilitator, activating students’ behavior to facilitate their learning processes with guidance and appropriate feedback.

• Prepare and raise the problematic situation.
• Monitor student’s processes by questioning, asking, and checking their solutions, helping them overcome the problem at the point of progress.
• Become co-learners and engage in the learning process alongside students. They encourage students to explore new ideas and stimulate knowledge application to find solutions.
• Summarize and review the student’s outcome by assessing the final products and evaluating how well students grasped this problem.

In the student-focused learning method, students take on dynamic and active roles differing from the traditional learning environment:

• Identify what they need to comprehend.
• Present the questions and aspects of the matter to the group.
• Divide questions into many categories: which questions will be resolved by the whole group and which will be handled by individuals.
• Gather materials, resources, and additional tools to solve the questions.
• Report the findings to the team members.
• Work as a group to discuss and apply the founded information to make a final solution.
• Evaluate and assess the problem-solving process.

Here are some ideal practices you can implement in the PBL to ensure an effective outcome in the classroom:

• Review the student’s targets to choose the best scenario that aligns with them.
• Choose authentic problems and connect them to real-life situations to ensure students analyze and defend their findings.
• Consider the number of involved students and the length of each project.
• Instruct students step by step through the process and explain the teaching method to increase engagement.
• Prioritize the use of narrative and relevant situations for students to buy in.
• Help students stay on track by discussing and giving constructive feedback when they face challenges.

At ISHCMC, the teaching and learning approach empowers students to actively participate in acquiring knowledge. It equips students with essential knowledge to excel in both the academic path and personal growth.

All learners are guided by the Principles of Learning, creating a dynamic environment where they can ask their questions, build on prior knowledge and hands-on experience, and enable them to make a difference.

Problem-based learning is a student-centered process that equips students with research, teamwork, and critical thinking abilities. Despite being challenging initially when implemented, this teaching and learning approach creates a supportive and collaborative environment for future growth.

At ISHCMC, our MYP program facilitates students’ access to the problem in the entire project with a project-based learning and teaching method. Specifically, MYP projects help develop students’ comprehensive understanding through in-depth investigation, generating appropriate decisions to solve problems.

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Problem Posing Education – 6 Key Characteristics

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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Problem-posing education is an active learning strategy where a teacher or student poses a problem and the class collaborates to find answers.

The six key characteristics of problem-posing education (PPE) are:

• Learners are conscious and capable.
• Learning takes place through problem-solving.
• Learning must be practical.
• Students and teachers are co-investigators.
• The teacher learns from the students.
• Learning is a Process of Becoming

PPE was first presented by Christian Socialist and progressive educator Paulo Freire in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed . It is a progressive-democratic teaching strategy , popular in 21 st Century education .

It is juxtaposed to banking education, also theorized by Freire, which involves transmission-style teaching and passive learning .

Key Characteristics of Problem-Posing Education

Six key characteristics of PPE include: (1) Learners are conscious and capable. (2) Learning takes place through problem-solving ; (3) Learning must be practical; (4) Students and teachers are co-investigators; (5) The teacher learns from the students; (6) Learning is the process of becoming.

Below is an outline of each key characteristic.

1. Learners are Conscious and Capable

Problem-posing education respects that students are active and agentic learners.

In banking education, learners are considered passive recipients of knowledge. They are not presumed to have any prior knowledge or inherent intelligence. Their job is to simply absorb information that is deposited into their minds by their teacher.

However, from a PPE perspective, Freire argues that learners are in fact conscious and capable. It, therefore, follows that:

• Cognitive Approaches are best: Learning occurs through cognitive processes. In other words, we learn when our minds are exercised and we’re asked to think hard about something.
• Prior Knowledge matters : Students’ prior knowledge and existing intelligence should be used to help them think about new topics.

2. Learning takes place through Problem-Solving

One of the best ways to support students’ learning is by presenting problems to them for them to find ways to solve.

Instead of students being given answers, they are given problems. Once a student is given a problem, they need to use their intelligence and research skills to seek out an answer.

The answer is not given or ‘gifted’ to the student like in the banking approach. Instead, the answer must be discovered by the students alone.

Some key considerations when posing problems include:

• Both the teacher and the student can pose a problem. It is not just the teacher’s role to come up with problems, although they can and do. Sometimes, a student will come to the class with a problem. It is appropriate and encouraged that the class works together to come up with an answer to the problem that was posed.
• The answer is not already known. Sometimes the teacher may have the answer in their mind, sometimes, they may not. But even if the teacher knows the answer, they should not tell the students. The students need to come up with it themselves. Furthermore, the teacher might change their mind after new knowledge is discovered by the students – so, the teacher needs to keep an open mind to the knowledge discovered through the process.

3. Learning must be Practical

Problem Posing Education believes that practical education is more important than theoretical education.

Freire did not like that 20 th Century education was so theoretical. Information was presented to students without context or consideration for how it would be used outside of school.

Purely theoretical information can be bad because:

• Students feel like it has no relevance to them and their lives.
• It is hard to remember because students don’t have any lived experiences of using it.
• It may not be of any use to students in the future.

So, Freire argued that all learning should be both theoretical and practical. Any theoretical information that is presented needs to be linked to real life. Students need to know why and how the theoretical information impacts their lives.

Benefits of practical learning include:

• Students can use what they are learning in real life.
• Learning occurs through engagement with the world, the discovery of facts, and trial and error.
• Knowledge is contextualized, making it easier to store and recall.

4. Students and Teacher are Co-investigators

Teachers should not be the authoritative holders of knowledge but rather should be open-minded investigators alongside their students.

Freire argued that the banking model of education separated students and teachers. The teacher was the knowledge giver and the student the knowledge receiver.

This created a power imbalance where the teacher held all the power, and students were unable to exercise any power of their own.

When the teacher has all the power, students:

• Learn to be passive followers.
• Do not learn democratic values.
• Fail to develop critical thinking skills.

Freire argued that the role of the teacher needs to be changed. Teachers should now be seen as co-investigators.

When teachers are co-investigators:

• The teacher does not have to be an expert on every topic.
• The students and teachers work as a team rather than having opposing roles.
• Students are given a chance to exercise agency (the ability to impact the learning process) in the classroom.

5. The Teacher learns from the Students

If teachers are no longer the authoritarian in the classroom, new possibilities emerge.

It would not be possible for the teacher to learn alongside the students.

But Freire takes this future: the teacher might also learn things from the students!

This is because:

• The teacher respects that students have prior knowledge that might be useful in the classroom.
• The teacher doesn’t presume to know all the answers. Answers unfold through the problem solving exercises.
• The teacher should be open to changing their mind when new information is introduced by the students.

As Freire argues:

“The teacher presents the material to the students for their consideration, and re-considers her earlier considerations as the students express their own.” (Freire, 1970, p. 81)

6. Learning is a Process of Becoming

Freire believed that learning is an endless process. Teachers and students combined are constantly learning throughout their lives.

He therefore argued for learning to be considered a ‘process of becoming’. Whenever we learn something new, we change our ideas and even ourselves. We become more knowledgeable, wiser, thoughtful, etc.

Problem-posing education is very beneficial for the process of becoming because the things we learn are directly relevant to the troubles in our lives. We come across a problem and we consider how to overcome it. In the process, we learn new things and ‘become’ more knowledgeable in the process.

Pros and Cons of Problem-Posing Education

Benefits (advantages).

Benefits of problem-posing education include:

• Students learn by actively discovering and examining new knowledge rather than passively absorbing information.
• Students and teachers are partners in learning, which gives students a sense of empowerment and ownership over their learning environment.
• Teachers do not feel like they have to know all the answers to the questions students have.
• Students learn about phenomena that have relevance to their everyday lives, and don’t just learn theoretical ideas.
• Students are encouraged to develop problem-solving, creative and critical thinking skills.
• Open communication and social learning are encouraged, helping students build communication skills and learn from one another.

Limitations (Disadvantages)

Limitations of problem-posing education include:

• The teacher must relinquish control over the classroom and needs to accept uncertainty about how a lesson will turn out.
• Sometimes theoretical ideas need to be taught, and these ideas may best be presented using direct instruction .
• Learning is more difficult: students need to exercise cognitive strategies, higher-order thinking sills and active learning strategies that require cognitive load.

If you have any more limitations to add, email me! chris [at] helpfulprofessor.com

Problem Posing vs Banking Education

Problem posing helps educators overcome the damaging practice of banking education and the two are seen as opposites.

Banking Education

The banking approach was widespread in the 20 th Century. It involved teacher transmission of information to ‘fill’ students’ minds like they are empty vessels waiting to be loaded up with facts.

In banking education:

• Teachers teach through transmission or dictation.
• Students are passive learners.
• Students must memorize the information given to the students.
• The teacher has all the power, the student has none.
• The teacher is supposed to hold all knowledge and their knowledge is unquestionable.
• The student is seen as unintelligent and having no prior knowledge

Banking education had several harmful effects:

• It denied students the right to freedom of thought, critical thinking or creativity.
• It created a dualism between the teacher as knowledge holder and student as knowledge receiver.
• It denied that students have prior knowledge or innate intellect.
• It prepared students to be compliant workers in capitalist economies.

Problem Posing

According to Freire, the way to ‘liberate’ students from this damaging form of education was to change the roles of the teacher and student . Students needed to be empowered to take control of their own learning.

‘Problem posing’ would help achieve student empowerment.

In a Problem-Posing Approach:

• Instead of the teacher being the knowledge holder, no one would be.
• A problem would be presented by someone in the class and the class would have to discover an answer together.
• The student is seen as an active learner capable of reaching conclusions through the use of cognitive skills .
• The teacher is seen as a co-learner.
• The student’s prior knowledge is used to help them understand a topic.

A problem-posing approach would aim to:

• Develop free-thinking students who came to conclusions using logic rather than repeating what their teacher said.
• Create democratic classrooms where the teacher did not domineer and impose their beliefs upon the students.
• Embrace and encourage students’ use of prior knowledge to learn new information.
• Encourage higher-order cognition.

Final Thoughts

Problem-posing education is an active learning strategy that empowers students in the classroom. It encourages learning that is connected to problems that are relevant and interesting to students’ lives. It requires changing the roles of the teacher and students so the teacher relinquishes authority, embraces uncertainty, and encourages class co-investigation.

Further Reading

PPE was outlined in Chapter 2 of Freire’s book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Read Chapter 2 online for free here .

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Shor, I. (1987).  Freire for the classroom: A sourcebook for liberatory teaching . New Hampshire: Heinemann Educational Books

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 10 Reasons you’re Perpetually Single
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• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 101 Hidden Talents Examples

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• Effective Teaching Strategies

Problem-Based Learning: Benefits and Risks

• November 12, 2009
• Maryellen Weimer, PhD

Problem-based learning, the instructional approach in which carefully constructed, open-ended problems are used by groups of students to work through content to a solution, has gained a foothold in many segments of higher education.

Originally PBL, as it’s usually called, was used in medical school and in some business curricula for majors. But now it is being used in a wide range of disciplines and with students at various educational levels. The article (reference below) from which material is about to be cited “makes a critical assessment” of how PBL is being used in the field of geography.

Much of the content is relevant to that discipline specifically, but the article does contain a useful table that summarizes the benefits and risks of PBL for students, instructors, and institutions. Material on the table is gleaned from an extensive review of the literature (all referenced in the article). Here’s some of the information contained in the table.

Benefits of Problem-Based Learning

For Students

• It’s a student-centered approach.
• Typically students find it more enjoyable and satisfying.
• It encourages greater understanding.
• Students with PBL experience rate their abilities higher.
• PBL develops lifelong learning skills.

For Instructors

• Class attendance increases.
• The method affords more intrinsic reward.
• It encourages students to spend more time studying.
• It promotes interdisciplinarity.

For Institutions

• It makes student learning a priority.
• It may aid student retention.
• It may be taken as evidence that an institution values teaching.

Risks of Problem-Based Learning

• Prior learning experiences do not prepare students well for PBL.
• PBL requires more time and takes away study time from other subjects.
• It creates some anxiety because learning is messier.
• Sometimes group dynamics issues compromise PBL effectiveness.
• Less content knowledge may be learned.
• Creating suitable problem scenarios is difficult.
• It requires more prep time.
• Students have queries about the process.
• Group dynamics issues may require faculty intervention.
• It raises new questions about what to assess and how.
• It requires a change in educational philosophy for faculty who mostly lecture.
• Faculty will need staff development and support.
• It generally takes more instructors.
• It works best with flexible classroom space.
• It engenders resistance from faculty who question its efficacy.

Reference: Pawson, E., Fournier, E., Haight, M., Muniz, O., Trafford, J., and Vajoczki, S. 2006. Problem-based learning in geography: Towards a critical assessment of its purposes, benefits and risks. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 30 (1): 103–16.

Excerpted from The Teaching Professor , February 2007.

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