The old-school model of passively learning facts and reciting them
out of context is no longer sufficient to prepare students to survive in
today's world. Solving highly complex problems requires that students
have both fundamental skills (reading, writing, and math) and 21st
century skills (teamwork, problem solving, research gathering, time
management, information synthesizing, utilizing high tech tools). With
this combination of skills, students become directors and managers of
their learning process, guided and mentored by a skilled teacher.
These 21st century skills include
- personal and social responsibility
- planning, critical thinking, reasoning, and creativity
- strong communication skills, both for interpersonal and presentation needs
- cross-cultural understanding
- visualizing and decision making
- knowing how and when to use technology and choosing the most appropriate tool for the task
PBL and Technology Use Bring a New Relevance to the Learning at Hand
By bringing real-life context and technology to the curriculum
through a PBL approach, students are encouraged to become independent
workers, critical thinkers, and lifelong learners. Teachers can
communicate with administrators, exchange ideas with other teachers and
subject-area experts, and communicate with parents, all the while
breaking down invisible barriers such as isolation of the classroom,
fear of embarking on an unfamiliar process, and lack of assurances of
success.
PBL is not just a way of learning; it's a way of working together. If
students learn to take responsibility for their own learning, they will
form the basis for the way they will work with others in their adult
lives.
PBL Lends Itself to Authentic Assessment
Authentic assessment and evaluation allow us to systematically
document a child's progress and development. PBL encourages this by
doing the following:
- It lets the teacher have multiple assessment opportunities.
- It allows a child to demonstrate his or her capabilities while working independently.
- It shows the child's ability to apply desired skills such as doing research.
- It develops the child's ability to work with his or her peers, building teamwork and group skills.
- It allows the teacher to learn more about the child as a person.
- It helps the teacher communicate in progressive and meaningful ways with the child or a group of children on a range of issues.
PBL Promotes Lifelong Learning
Lee Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement
of Teaching, has observed, "Teaching has been an activity undertaken
behind closed doors between moderately consenting participants." PBL
promotes lifelong learning because
- PBL and the use of technology enable students, teachers, and administrators to reach out beyond the school building.
- Students become engaged builders of a new knowledge base and become active, lifelong learners.
- PBL teaches children to take control of their learning, the first step as lifelong learners.
In that pursuit of new knowledge, technology allows students access
to research and experts, from such sources as first-person accounts to
movies of the Civil War found on the Library of Congress's
American Memory collection to online chats with NASA astronauts.
PBL Accommodates Students with Varying Learning Styles and Differences
It is known that children have various learning styles. They build
their knowledge on varying backgrounds and experiences. It is also
recognized that children have a broader range of capabilities than they
have been permitted to show in regular classrooms with the traditional
text-based focus. When children are interested in what
they are doing and are able to use their areas of strength, they achieve
at a higher level.
Research Supports PBL
A growing body of research supports the use of PBL. Schools where PBL
is practiced find a decline in absenteeism, an increase in cooperative
learning skills, and improvement in student achievement. When technology
is used to promote critical thinking and communication, these benefits
are enhanced.
Resource-based Projects
In these projects, the teacher steps out of the traditional role of being a content expert and information provider, and instead lets the students find their own facts and information. Only when necessary for the active learning process does the teacher step in to supply data or information. The general flow of events in resource-based projects are:
- The teacher determines the topic for the examination of the class.
- The teacher presents the problem to the class.
- The students find information on the problem/questions.
- Students organize their information in response to the problem/questions.
TRADITIONAL & RESOURCE-BASED LEARNING MODELS
Traditional
learning model
|
Resource-based
learning model
|
Teacher is expert and information provider
|
Teacher is a guide and facilitator
|
Textbook is key source of information
|
Sources
are varied (print, video, Internet, etc.)
|
Focus on facts information is packaged in neat
parcels
|
Focus on learning inquiry/quest/discovery
|
The product is the be-all and end-all of learning
|
Emphasis
on process
|
Assessment is quantitative
|
Assessment is quantitative and qualitative
|
RESOURCE-BASED LEARNING: WHAT IS IT?
Resource-based learning actively involves
students, teachers and teacher-librarians in the effective use of a wide
range of print, non print and human resources. Resource-based learning
fosters the development of individual students by accommodating their
varied interests, experiences, learning styles, needs and ability
levels. Students who use a wide range of resources in various mediums
for learning have the opportunity to approach a theme, issue or topic of
study in ways which allow for a range of learning styles and access to
the theme or topic via cognitive or affective appeals. More |
Students are actively involved and more
accountable for their own learning. Classroom teachers and their
partners in education need to do much more than simply ensure access or
provide the wide range of appropriate learning resources; they must
ensure that the students' learning environment is properly structured,
so that learning will occur. Skills for accessing, evaluating, using,
and applying information are carefully targeted, ensuring that students
meet the outcomes for information literacy identified in the approved
curriculum and instructional programs. Learning is facilitated by
teachers who understand their critical role, always promoting student
involvement and interaction, and assessing learning in ways that ensure
that more than simple content (or the "right answer") is learned. With
this increased emphasis on the development of skills and strategies,
(and on critical thinking, problem-solving, communication and
creativity,) our students will be better prepared to become lifelong
learners, capable of independent and informed decision-making.
Resource-Based Learning and Teacher-Librarians
... In today's rapidly changing society,
students must have the opportunity to develop the ability to retrieve,
assess, and apply information. As we equip students with these skills we
will help ensure that learning does not end with the completion of
formal education, but continues throughout life.
These
goals can best be achieved through resource-based teaching/learning,
that is, a library program fully integrated with the school's
instructional program with teacher-librarians and teachers using a
cooperative program planning approach.
|
Resource-Based Learning in the Atlantic Core Curriculum
|
Resource-based learning is student-centered. Students are actively involved and more accountable for their own learning. |
Information Literacy is clearly articulated in these Essential Graduation Learnings for Atlantic Canada:
-
Problem-solving
-
Communication
-
Technological Competence
The P.E.I. Department of Education has also promoted another
similar definition of Resource-Based Learning, from the province of
Saskatchewan since the publication of the teachers' resource, Where Did You Find That?
( by Alixe Hambleton, 1992, Saskatchewan School Library Association and
The Saskatchewan Professional Development Unit.) This resource is
available in all P.E.I. public school libraries:
Resource-Based Learning is a planned
educational program that actively involves students in the effective use
of a wide range of appropriate print, nonprint, and human resources.
|
|
Many of the outcomes for student learning are aimed at the development
of information literacy. These will be best achieved when a
resource-based learning approach is planned and implemented in a
collaborative manner throughout the curriculum at all grade levels,
across the school and formal educational experience of all students. |
Regardless of the grade level or the subjects being taught, teachers
know that the language arts are important, that students use these three
strands for language acquisition and communicating information and
ideas across the curriculum (and throughout life):
-
Speaking and Listening (S&L)
-
Reading and Viewing (R&V)
-
Writing and Other Ways of Representing (W&R)
The Language Arts Curriculum for Atlantic Canada uses these
three strands as a framework for the ten General Outcomes for student
learning, using the language arts processes.
In order to achieve the outcomes for learning identified in
our regional curricula, it is clear that students need to have
opportunities for exposure to and practice with ideas and concepts
(knowledge,) skills and attitudes, in many contexts and for diverse
learning needs, not just in language arts or English subject classes.
These five General Curriculum Outcomes (GCO's) in particular, illustrate this new focus on the development of information literacy,
and we need to remember that they are equally important in science,
mathematics, social studies, as well as other subjects/curriculum areas:
-
-
GCO B
- communicate information and ideas effectively and clearly, and to respond personally and effectively (S/L)
-
-
GCO D
- select, read. and view with understanding a range of literature, information, media, visual, and audio texts (R/V)
-
-
GCO E
- interpret, select, and combine information using a variety of strategies, resources, and technologies (R/V)
-
-
GCO G
- respond critically to a range of texts, applying their understanding of language, form, and genre (R/V)
-
-
GCO I
- create texts collaboratively and independently, using a variety of forms for a range of audiences and purposes (W/R)
|
Building Information Literacy contains student learning outcomes
for information literacy that emanate from all ten of the general
learning outcomes in the Atlantic Provinces Education Foundation (APEF)
Language Arts Curriculum. |
It should be noted that Building Information Literacy contains
student learning outcomes for information literacy that emanate from all
ten of the general learning outcomes in the Atlantic Language Arts
Curriculum (APEF). As the Committee "de-constructed" these documents and
re-ordered and re-constructed the many specific learning outcomes from
all three language arts strand into the stages or phases of the
Information Process, it became clear that the development of information
literacy requires student-centered, inquiry-based learning activities
that ensure these outcomes will be achieved. This was a challenging,
constructivist learning process for everyone involved!
What Does Resource-Based Learning Look Like?
There
are endless ways to implement a resource-based learning approach in the
classroom or in the school library or in other educational contexts.
When classroom teachers and teacher-librarians collaborate to plan,
implement, and assess resource-based learning activities, they may
decide to use one of many possible methods, including the following:
Resource-based Learning Centres or Stations:
Pre-selected
learning resources are assembled in one or more location, with clear
directions for students to follow (re. skills, strategies, content,
concepts.)
Students access the centre(s) at times predetermined by
teachers, individually or in small groups, and their learning is usually
assessed through the use of teacher observations, answer keys, and/or
product and process evaluation and reflective strategies. When teachers
include a more "open-ended" approach, and higher order thinking skills
are involved in the use, application and synthesis of information,
students' learning may be very creative, individualized and satisfying.
Cooperative learning is a key feature in this approach. When properly
structured, it is rarely chaotic and very popular with students. They
may complete an entire activity at a single learning centre or a number
of centres or stations may be involved in the activity.
|
Learning stations are an excellent way to orient students to the school
library early in the school year or they may also be a good way to
"launch" a topic or theme. |
This is a good approach when limited resources are available; it is
possible to make optimal use of a few excellent resources when students
work in pairs or in small groups. They may complete many stations over a
period of several periods or days, or they may spend more time on just
one or two stations or centres, depending on the objectives of the
teachers involved. Some people plan for one station for each pair of
students (i.e. 19 or 20 stations for 37 students,) including one or two
extras so that there is always a "free" station available when a team of
students is ready.
Learning stations are an excellent way to orient students to
the school library early in the school year or they may also be a good
way to "launch" a topic or theme. Students will have opportunities to
access and interact with multiple resources in a variety of formats and
they should be encouraged to examine resource, including their
organization and some of the content.
This will be a definite advantage if a "project" or some
other type of in-depth information processing activity is to follow.
What better way to pick a topic for research or to gain some "prior
knowledge" of a subject, or to develop a thesis question or begin a
search for information sources?
Projects, Papers, and Other Information Processing/Authentic Research Assignments:
|
Students have much to gain when they experience a consistent approach,
beginning in the primary grades and continuing throughout their school
years. |
Doing "research" may not be new, but its importance in today's
classrooms is unquestioned. There is a renewed emphasis on inquiry or
problem-based learning activities. A lot has been learned about properly
structuring this type of resource-based learning for success, and
students and their teachers will only make optimal use of this approach
when time is taken to plan and implement truly "authentic" and
meaningful projects. We may turn to the work of Kulthau, Eisenberg,
Pitts, and others, proving that a research (or information) process or framework is essential.
Students have much to gain when they experience a consistent approach,
beginning in the primary grades and continuing throughout their school
years.
World Wide Web-Based Projects:
The
WebQuest
is becoming a favoured approach, moving resource-based learning into
the electronic learning environment. WebQuests needn't exclude
information in other formats, in fact the best WebQuests are those that
"scaffold" or structure students' learning to ensure they access,
evaluate, and use appropriate information, regardless of the format or
source! The following overview of this approach was developed by former
P.E.I. Education's Information Technology Facilitator, Michelle
(McQuaid) Dodds:
More
Whether you are using an email connection with other
learners or implementing a fully developed WebQuest with your students,
it is important to remember that "doing an Internet project" should
never be the sole purpose for students, the Internet should be an
interactive and exciting tool they use for individual or collaborative
inquiry and problem-solving, and for creating knowledgeable and creative
products; sharing their own learning with others.
|
"Doing an Internet project" should never be the sole purpose ... the
Internet should be an interactive and exciting tool they use for
individual or collaborative inquiry and problem-solving. |
Three elementary schools in Prince Edward Island have been involved in
another Web-based project during the 1997-98 and 1998-99 school years.
The Islands Project
has focused grade five students' information literacy skills on
learning what it means to "be an islander." As a part of their social
studies program they began with studying their own local "island
communities," using a vast array of primary and secondary resources in
all formats (print, non-print, electronic, community people and
organizations.) These resource-based learning activities were integrated
with their school library programs and different approaches were taken
by the schools and their teacher-librarians. Two schools used learning
stations as a way of organizing the information processing component.
Students became "experts" about one of the topics in their class studies
and shared their learning with others in their classrooms and in their
school communities. The third school utilized a "scrapbook" approach
with their in-depth study of local communities organized in the pages of
the individually created collections.
All
three schools were supported in publishing their students' work to the
World Wide Web; two schools (Parkside and L.M. Montgomery) used
Zebu
Web-based software, the third school, Vernon River, completed their
1999 project using HTML programming to publish their project. Students
at Vernon River in the first year of the project (1998) created and
published Islands Project using
Zebu.
Throughout this project there was an emphasis on interaction
in the learning environment; students were expected to communicate with
others in their own cooperative working groups as well as those in the
other two partnering schools. They also communicated using E-mail (or
discussion boxes within Zebu) with students in other North Atlantic "island places" such as Newfoundland, the Isle of Skye, and Iceland.
