Research On Problem-based Learning

With the advent of knowledge-based economy,informatizion and globalization,the rapid development of ICT has greatly changed people's lifestyle as well as learning style,thus higher requirement for education is needed. As a citizen of information age,people should master much moreimportant capability-information literacy (i.e.,exploring and acquiringinformation exactly and quickly,identifying and selecting information accurately,comprehending,synthesizing and processing information creatively,etc.)than the traditional three R's . Now education is facing new challenges due to the increasing requirement of the society. As Edgar. Faurepointed out in his book (Learning to be-the world of ecucation today andtomorrow),"education is no longer limited to the inflexible content which must to be absorbed,on the other hand,it should be regarded as the process of human beings .During the process,they learn how to behave themselves,how to communicate with others,how to explore the world,and how to fulfill themselves constantly through all kinds of experiences." In Learning-the treasure within,a report to UNESCO submitted by theInternational Commission on Education for the 21st century,J. Delors also pointed out that education in 21st century should focus on four kinds oflearning-learning to know,learning to do .learning to live together andlearning to be,which are four stanchion of education in 21st century.Unfortunately,there still exists a serious gap between present education and ideal one. Acquisition of Knowledge in classroom is separated from practice,and the teaching approaches and assessing methods are only confined to reproduction of information.As a result,some students with high marks just turn out to be poor in creativity and problem-solving ability. So,it is urgent for us to change teachers' mind,reform the backward situation of schooling,develop new instructional models,problem-based learning models is regarded as an effective model.This thesis covers problem-based learning both in theory and in practice.In Chapter 1,this thesis articulates problem-based learning in detail from the perspectives of definition,essential characteristics,comparison with other instructional models,instructional values,basic procedures and instruction ideas within it. Problem based learning is a method of engaging the student in complicated and meaningful situations that students work in small groups and learn the science knowledge from the problems through resolving complex .real-world or authentic problems together. In such situations,problem-solving skills,self-directed learning and life-long learning abilities are developed. This kind of learning modality can be traced to the medical education in America in the middle of 1950s. From then on,it. was well-designed and widely used in the first two year's course in medical school of American,such as anatomy,pharmacology and physiology etc. Untill now,this model is increasingly applied to other education fields including commerce education,construction education,engineering education,law education and community employment education etc. At the same time,problem-based leaning is greatly attracting the K12 educators' attention,and then they begin to work with it. The main characteristics of problem-based learning are:(1) Learning is student-centered(2) Learning occurs in small student groups(3) Teachers are facilitators or guiders(4) Problems form the organizing focus and stimulus for learning(5) Problems are authentic and ill-structured(6) Problems are a vehicle for the development of real-world problem-solving skills(7) New information is acquired and skills are trained through problem-solving process(8) Evaluation is authentic and performance-based.After describing the features of problem-based learning,this thesiscompares problem-based learning with other instruction models-lecture,direct instruction,case methods,discover-based inquiry,problem-centered learning,Simulation and Gaming and Mantle of the Expert(...