An Educator, Faculty of Education, Researcher, and Civil Servant.
Problem-based Learning (PBL) & Formative Assessments
“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”
― John Dewey
Context
In Bangladesh, apart from the students’ poor literacy and numeracy skills (National Student Assessment, 2015), students lack 21st century skills — communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity — which are essential skills to ensure the quality of education.
My Initiative:
To resolve the described issue, I started leading PBL integrated formative assessments back in 2018 at Bangladeshi public schools by introducing student-led projects and by assessing their learning in a formative way.
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What and Why is PBL:
PBL is an approach in which complex real-world problems are used as the vehicle to challenge students. They follow multistage procedures to solve the problems and present student-led projects to the masses. In addition to content knowledge, PBL develops learners’ critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, collaboration, and communication skills because it requires students to research and share multiple perspectives on a given topic.
We only think when confronted with a problem.
― John Dewey
How:
PBL aims to develop learners’ problem-solving skills by embarking on different projects beyond the classrooms. For example, after studying waste management in the textbook, fourth grade learners made a garbage disposal place using low-cost/no-cost materials in their neighborhood with the help of the community members. This endeavor additionally aims at empowering teachers to design instructional activities that nurture learners’ multiliteracies and to continuously assess their performance using rubrics. Connecting community people with the learning process of kids is another significant attribute of this attempt so that the learning of kids becomes a real-life public product.
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Affiliated Organizations:
Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Directorate of Primary Education, National Curriculum and Textbook Board, and Access to Information (a2i) Program.