Effects of PBL Implementation on Teaching of Geography in High School

Abstract

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) represents a major development and change in educational practice that continues to have a large impact across subjects and disciplines worldwide. PBL is a successful teaching and learning strategy used to engage students in deep rather than surface learning and where the learning is student focused rather than teacher focused (Biggs,1999). The paper presents the comparison of PBL with traditional learning in the teaching of geography in high school. Comparative analysis of the results of the pedagogical experiment, which included three high schools, 14 classes with 339 students, is carried out. In the statistical analysis of data t-test was used to check the hypothesis on the differences of the arithmetic means. The results of the final test showed that there was a significant difference in the arithmetic means between the students who had taken a PBL course and the students who had taken a traditional course. It can be concluded that PBL has a positive impact on improving student achievement in the learning of geography in elementary and secondary schools.