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Federal grant extends reach of problem-based learning project

October 2010

Dr. John Saye

Dr. John Saye wants social studies teachers to challenge their students to do more than remember names, places and dates.

Saye has visited enough classrooms to know that K-12 students are far more likely to remember those details when they are challenged to think critically about the challenges historical figures faced. In his capacity as co-director of the Persistent Issues in History Network , Saye encourages educators to develop problem-based learning strategies.

For instance, if a class happens to be studying the American Revolution or the Civil Rights Movement, a teacher could stimulate student discussion by posing the following question: When are citizens justified in disobeying established authority?

“Kids don’t like social studies,’’ said Saye, a professor of social science education in the College of Education's Department of Curriculum and Teaching. “They see it as memorizing names and dates. Problem-based learning presents the subject to kids in a way that real people are involved. We ask them to deal with questions that people have had to deal with throughout time.

“They learn a lot more deeply and retain more that way.’’

With the help of a grant from the U.S. Department of Education , Saye and colleagues at Indiana University and New Mexico State University will look for ways to help teachers use new technological tools for problem-based learning. The total funding for the project, entitled “PBL-TECH: Using Web 2.0 Tools and Resources to Support Problem-Based Curricular Innovations in Pre-Service Teacher Education,’’ is $749,853 for three years. Saye’s share of the overall award is $150,791.

Saye and his partners – Dr. Thomas Brush, associate dean for teacher education and associate professor of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University’s School of Education and Dr. Krista Glazewski, associate professor of Learning Technologies at New Mexico State University – believe educators will engage students more effectively by using interactive technology.

“I think things like Twitter offer a lot of possibilities,’’ Saye said. “In social studies, in the real world, Twitter has had a dramatic impact on politics and in coordinating social protest. We know our students are using those kinds of things. That’s a big part of the first step of this project is to do some conceptualization of what tools exist now. What can we recommend to teachers and teacher educators as the most promising tools available now?’’

Saye said he and his colleagues hope the project will inspire more universities to develop problem-based learning models for teacher education and, ultimately, integrate those same approaches in K-12 school systems. If that happens, more students may come to view their social studies classes differently.

“We’re talking about students wrestling with dilemmas that people in that place and time [in history] wrestled with,’’ Saye said. “Those are the issues they are going to struggle with as adults because those questions continue to be raised in contemporary contexts.’’

Last Updated: May 17, 2011