Principles of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in STEM Education: Using Expert Wisdom and Research to Frame Educational Practice

Abstract

Developing teacher knowledge, skills, and confidence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is critical to supporting a culture of innovation and productivity across the population. Such capacity building is also necessary for the development of STEM literacies involving the ability to identify, apply, and integrate concepts from STEM domains toward understanding complex problems, and innovating to solve them. However, a lack of visible models of STEM integration has been highlighted by teachers as a challenge to successfully implementing integrated STEM education in schools. Problem Based Learning (PBL) has been well-established in higher education contexts as an approach to learning in the STEM disciplines and may present an effective way to integrate knowledge and skills across STEM disciplines in school-based STEM education and support the development of students as capable, self-directed learners. However, if PBL is to effectively contribute to STEM education in schools and build teacher capacity to teach STEM, then this approach needs to be better understood. This paper aims to generate a set of principles for supporting a PBL model of STEM education in schools based on insights from the literature and expert focus groups of PBL professionals. Four principles of PBL emerged from the data analysis: (a) flexible knowledge, skills, and capabilities; (b) active and strategic metacognitive reasoning; (c) collaboration based on intrinsic motivation; and (d) problems embedded in real and rich contexts. The study outcomes provide evidence-informed support for teachers who may be considering the value of adopting a PBL approach in school-based STEM education.

The Effect of Problem-Solving-Based Learning on Critical Thinking Skills of Nursing Students

“…The nursing profession needs CT to make appropriate decisions in challenging situations. Therefore, new and student-centered educational methods, such as problemsolving-based learning strategies, can help improve nursing students' CT. Based on this study, students' tendency to CT increased in all dimensions after participating in problem-solving sessions, which was in line with the results of Seibert, Song, Liu and Pásztor (2021) (8,13,14).…”

The International Space Station (ISS) Contest as STEM Educational Project

“…The ISS educational project contributed to reach the benchmarks of STEM readiness (Mattern et al, 2015), improving the STEM competences (Boon Ng, 2019) beyond the classic 4C skills (Triana et al, 2020). Both the Teams A and B practiced the PBL & PrBL (Smith et al, 2022) and the EDP (English & King, 2015) within a learning by doing pattern based on feeding the students' curiosity (Kowalski & Kowalski, 2015). Guided by two male supervisors, the brilliant performance of Team B (with four female members out of five) showed that the gender gap in STEM fields is not necessarily due to mismatching mentors, as conversely claimed by Kricorian et al (2020) and by Bilgin et al (2022a).…”

Validity of Teaching Modules with Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Model Assisted by E-Book to Improve Problem-Solving Skills on Renewable Energy Material and Implementation of Independent Learning Curriculum

“…Developing teaching modules using the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) learning model is the right approach to improving students' problem-solving skills. PBL involves students actively in the process of solving and resolving real problems [57]. Several essential components in the developed teaching module help achieve learning objectives and facilitate students' problem-solving skills.…”