Reflection essay #2 Since I was not able to join the discussion of this week (I must missed a lot), I can only provide my reflection on the reading materials.
Hmelo-Silver and Perrenet’s articles are focused on the different subfields of the topic of problem-based learning (PBL). In Hmelo-Silver’s article, she focused on the analyzing the main properties of PBL. She talks about what are expect to be learned by students (the goal of PBL), the role of the problem and teachers (facilitators) during the learning process, and elaborately discusses and explains the differences on performance between problem-based and traditional students. Both authors believe that problem-based students tend to have a more extensive and flexible knowledge base, …show more content…
However, this is explicable as the problems assigned to the students during the PBL are always ill-structured and open-ended problems that related to the real world. The author also mentions that the problem and its solutions would be complex enough for students in order to arouse their “interest”. I think complexity and difficulty are two different concept. Here, what the author means would be problems that require students to have problem integrating, analyzing ability in multi-dimension, not a Nobel Prize level like research topic. In Brown’s article, he says what should be made explicit and what should not in teaching is hard to determine, and make it explicit as much as possible is a bad practice. This suggests us that leaving white space in teaching design is as important as leaving white space in art design. This might also explains why we want the problems to be …show more content…
The teachers are not required to be experts in the research area of that problem. Other than a leader in the classroom, their role is more like a guide that monitoring students and make sure they do not get lost. From here, we can link to Shulman’s article about how teaching should be reformed. In Shulman’s articles, he gives a model of pedagogical reasoning and action for teachers, which explains the role of facilitators in details from Hmelo-Silver. They both agree on the instructing and evaluating role of teachers in the learning process. However, Shulman argues that “to teach is first to understand.” He thinks it is expected that the teachers should comprehend the content and can even drive other ideas from the given
Hmelo-Silver and Perrenet’s articles are focused on the different subfields of the topic of problem-based learning (PBL). In Hmelo-Silver’s article, she focused on the analyzing the main properties of PBL. She talks about what are expect to be learned by students (the goal of PBL), the role of the problem and teachers (facilitators) during the learning process, and elaborately discusses and explains the differences on performance between problem-based and traditional students. Both authors believe that problem-based students tend to have a more extensive and flexible knowledge base, …show more content…
However, this is explicable as the problems assigned to the students during the PBL are always ill-structured and open-ended problems that related to the real world. The author also mentions that the problem and its solutions would be complex enough for students in order to arouse their “interest”. I think complexity and difficulty are two different concept. Here, what the author means would be problems that require students to have problem integrating, analyzing ability in multi-dimension, not a Nobel Prize level like research topic. In Brown’s article, he says what should be made explicit and what should not in teaching is hard to determine, and make it explicit as much as possible is a bad practice. This suggests us that leaving white space in teaching design is as important as leaving white space in art design. This might also explains why we want the problems to be …show more content…
The teachers are not required to be experts in the research area of that problem. Other than a leader in the classroom, their role is more like a guide that monitoring students and make sure they do not get lost. From here, we can link to Shulman’s article about how teaching should be reformed. In Shulman’s articles, he gives a model of pedagogical reasoning and action for teachers, which explains the role of facilitators in details from Hmelo-Silver. They both agree on the instructing and evaluating role of teachers in the learning process. However, Shulman argues that “to teach is first to understand.” He thinks it is expected that the teachers should comprehend the content and can even drive other ideas from the given