Problem-based learning (PBL) is a valuable teaching and learning approach, particularly in STEM education. In PBL students are encouraged to work together to explore a diverse range of possible solutions to challenging problems.

The problem-based learning in school-based STEM education project developed four key Principles of Practice for PBL in school based STEM education. The first of these principles focuses on the importance of providing students with opportunities to explore authentic ‘problems’ set within contexts which are relevant to their life experience or aligned with areas of interest. These contexts provide rich opportunities for learning as students engage with complex, open-ended problems which require them to work across discipline areas and develop a range of knowledge and skills. This first principle is designed to create conditions for learning where students are intrinsically motivated to collaborate, share ideas and negotiate a variety of perspectives.

In the research project ‘Exploring problem-based learning in school-based STEM education’, teachers explored how to apply this principle to enhance their STEM teaching. This article features the voices of the teacher co-researchers, sharing the insights they developed.

Read more: The four Principles of Practice for PBL in school-based STEM education

Contexts for PBL should be linked to the real world

Relatable problems are situated in the local, national or global contexts in which students live. Linking to real-world contexts provides relevant and authentic learning situations that are essential in supporting learners to select and apply appropriate and meaningful, strategic thinking.

Spiro Kalantzis, a teacher from St Monica’s Secondary college in Epping, worked with local community groups to establish a context for STEM learning that was relevant to his year 9 students. Spiro said,

“We were trying to enhance STEM education through rich and relevant learning contexts. To do that, we've partnered with the City of Whittlesea, in particular, Dr. Edmond Lascaris, who is the Sustainability and Water management specialist there.”

In their project, The City of Whittlesea became a ‘client’ who challenged the Year 9 students to design a productive greenhouse or energy efficient tiny house which could maintain a constant temperature, using the least amount of energy. This experience was highly engaging for students as they responded to a real world need shared with them by a key organisation within their local community. Students researched, made choices and designed their solutions.

Teachers also found that rich and relevant contexts provided opportunities to progressively develop student decision making skills. For some teachers, starting students with a directed approach and then moving to opportunities where they could exercise greater decision making options, was often necessary to enable students to become more familiar and comfortable with taking risks and dealing with uncertainty.

At Kolbe College in Greenvale, Victoria, teachers Anthony Schepis and Lara Black did this by exploring social justice issues through Zoos Victoria’s ‘Endangered Species’ program. The teachers explained how looking at ways to better the lives for animals in captivity enabled them over time to progressively offer students more control of decision making, including greater choice to explore various options. Anthony explains the impact of this experience on future PBL planning:

“So in the future, we hope to achieve a program that is more sequential, that helps students develop skills, starting from year eight, where it's quite directed and focused. And from them moving into their year nine program, which is a little bit more broad and open, but still having developed the skills of inquiry and project-based learning to be able to then address certain challenges that are in the real world.”

Contexts for PBL should be rich

Rich contexts offer scope for interdisciplinary exploration and the generation of multiple possible outcomes. A problem set within a rich context often reflects the reality that everyday problems are complex and ill defined. Students are required to determine key issues and clarify contributing factors. Problems set within rich contexts invite students to draw from and further develop knowledge and skills across discipline areas as they explore a range of possible solutions or outcomes.

At St Jude’s Primary School in Scoresby, teacher Melanie Ellem said that after previous attempts to combine religious education curriculum with the humanities and science curriculum, the school decided to "offer another approach" to both the religious instruction the students received, as well as the acquisition of knowledge and skills in other curriculum areas.

"Making the connections between our religious units of inquiry and our science, history, geography and other curriculum areas, sometimes didn't align, particularly as we went through the liturgical year. We wanted to make sure the religious education that our students received was authentic, and our inquiry-based learning (in other subject areas from the curriculum) was also authentic."

In developing a PBL approach to inquiry units, the school was able to offer students the opportunity to work with rich problems, utilising a range of discipline knowledge and skills.

At Kolbe College, teacher Lara Black explained the changes in teaching approaches that occurred as a result of the school’s involvement in the research project.

“Before the project, we were really focused on maybe more of a science-based process versus a STEM-based process. So a lot of our challenges or topics that we were targeting with students were very focused around science. Whereas we've now come in with PBL to make it more general focused and how we can then enhance technology, engineering, maths, incorporating all that through doing PBL.”

Rich and relevant problems give rise to multiple possible solutions

Teachers and students can feel anxious about ‘getting the right answer’ to a problem, however, PBL is not about ‘finding a single solution’. Authentic problems often mirror the complexity of everyday situations where part of the challenge lies in gaining clarification and agreement about critical considerations which define the problem. Problems that are open ended often have no clear or immediately obvious solution. There can be multiple ways of approaching the problem or even recognizing it. In a classroom situation, these types of problems can be used to encourage open inquiry where students work to unpack and define the nature of the problem, and in doing so establish what they already know and what they need to learn more about.

The openness of rich problems in PBL leads to the generation of multiple possible evidence-informed ‘solutions’. However, this can cause anxiety and uncertainty for learners accustomed to seeking clear right or wrong answers. Helping learners be aware that uncertainty and mistakes are a valued part of the problem solving process is a critical intention of learning in a PBL approach.

Frank Roland from St Columba’s College in Essendon explains,

“In our Year 9 and 10 STEAM, we've incorporated the principles of creative confidence in conjunction with the Stanford Design Thinking process. So working with them together allows the students not only to design and build something, but understand the mindset or the emotional rollercoaster that can come with designing something that you've never done before.”

Vicki Gair from St Jude’s Primary school, Scoresby, highlights the need to support learners to develop skills and capabilities to solve their problems. Vicki highlights that her students often don't know “which direction to go with their research and with their information. And that's where we come in. We've sort of got to model the questions that they could be asking that would direct them to the information or the strategies they need. So, it's modelling questioning techniques for the children or modelling an effective way to use a design brief in the project."

You don't want to just tell them, because then that's going back to the old model of memorizing facts and information. But for me to model questioning…. what questions would I need to solve, where would I go to find the answers to those?”

PBL problems can be structured and scaffolded for students based on their prior knowledge and experiences. Teachers can support students as they look for suitable resources. Teachers can also explicitly teach information at a point of need when students require such input to continue their problem solving.

Rich contexts allow for active and self-directed learning

Rich and relevant learning contexts encourage active and self-directed learning. Therefore, the teacher’s role becomes one of a guide or facilitator and rather than teaching students how to solve the problem, teachers instead work to strategically support students to sit comfortably with uncertainty, draw on any existing knowledge which may be relevant to the situation, ask focused questions and develop the knowledge and skills which empower students to solve the problem. Guiding, modeling, monitoring and evaluating learner progress through the PBL process requires teachers to resist the urge to ‘jump in’ and save students from failure or struggle. Allowing students to try and learn from productive failure nurtures their creativity, critical thinking, resilience and adaptability.

Spiro Kalantzis explains,

“Since working on the [PBL] project, we learned that students need a facilitator. They need a guide on the side rather than a sage on the stage. They need to take ownership of their work and their problem, and they need to actually be the ones who are solving the problems. We also learned to not solve the problems for them, which is really important. It's critically important for them to take ownership of their learning and solving their own problems is one way that they do that.”

In conclusion, a PBL approach to school-based STEM education connects learning to real-world issues. These are explored through rich and relevant contexts which provide interdisciplinary challenges aligned with students' values and beliefs. This approach enhances individual engagement, and the complex and open structures of authentic and relevant problems mirror real world problems and provide a rich opportunity for learners to think deeply. Teachers act as guides, facilitating active and self-directed learning in well-structured and scaffolded environments.