Problem-based Learning (PBL)

Problem-based learning (PBL) is indeed an innovation in the education system for the traditional teaching method. In PBL students are given problems and think about how to overcome the problems. 🙍 I immediately think of many problems that I need to solve in everyday life 😂. Yes, PBL is actually some kind of learning through solving any problem that arise in life. It maximise the use of our brain in identifying the problems and generating idea to overcome the obstacles.


In traditional teaching style, teacher usually use explaining method where students will tend to only listen to the teacher and there is no two-way communication going on during lecture. The teacher was the only one that was happy with all the informations she delivered during class, but the students might not have understood a single thing from her lecture. Thus in PBL, students were given tasks to be solved during class, it is a method of cultivating high-level thinking orders (HOTs) among students.


What is unique about PBL, learning starts with the introduction of the problem that need to be solved. Problem must relate to everyday life and have no algorithm. The problem itself is very complex and ill-structured with unclear information or hint to test the ability to think and solve problems of students. It is a non-routine problem solving. It holds a non-isolated context and embedded in a problem scenario. A problem scenario is a situation where the problems take place. It can be in the form of text, dialogue text, newspaper's article, and video.


So, how to solve a problem scenario? 🙀


You do not have to worry as Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris has came out with a RiLIA thinking template to help students organize their informations they get from a problem scenario into a smaller components. Here, I attach the overview of the RiLIA thinking template 👇.

I think RiLIA thinking template is really helpful in breaking all the informations needed according to categories. So, students can see clearly what are the relevant informations, facts, learning issues, as well as, developing questions based on what needs to be learned to understand and solved the problem, and, plan the activities in order to solve the problem.


Dr. Nurul did give us an example of a problem scenario that we need to solve (Learning through experience is very important for Dr. Nurul 😆), which you can see below 👇.

Here is how i solved the problems 👇. Ah, I forgot to mention Rauza, she was my partner in this activity. We were actually divided into two groups, Mrs. Kamaliah & Mrs. Farah, Rauza & I. After an hour of brainstorming, here is our solutions for the problem.

As for conclusion, I really had fun that day, I think learning through hands-on and activity like this is very helpful in enhancing students engagement and comprehention towards certain topics. I believed if this PBL method is widely applied in all the alma maters in this world, we can produce students with outstanding HOTs and very adaptable in every situations they get into. 😍

Gamification

Today's class is about gamification, gamification in mind will definitely be a game. Yes! gamification is a form of game and what is unique about this game is it can be used in the education class. Pretty awesome actually, by browsing any educational games website, registering as a member and follow given instructions, students can already play any educational games such as quizizz and quizlet that are very easy, cost-effective, and do not use a lot of time and will definitely be the choice of students in testing their comprehention towards any topic they learned before in the classroom. Amazingly, students can access this educational game anytime and anywhere through smartphones or laptops as long as they have internet access. 

Scientificially, gamification is the application of game elements and digital game design techniques to non-game problems, such as business and social impact challenges. In gamification, it is important to have a goal, rules, challenges, feedback, interaction, and narrative story. So that the game will become more meaningful and have a purpose. 

Thus, today class is about designing a simple game, the mechanisms of gamification, why it has such tremendous potential, and how to use it effectively. This game must include any concept of physics and can be used in class as a form of assessment for student's understanding about the concept being taught earlier as well as to develop higher order thinking skills among students. This type of game also will make the students engage more in teaching and learning processes.

Hence, Dr. Nurul devided us to form two groups. Group 1 is Mrs. Kamaliah and Amirah. whereas Group 2 is Mrs. Farah, Rauza, and definetely me! Creating a game is quiet challenging actually as it must include all of the essential keypoints as I mention above. I am really impressed with all the game producers in this world 😂 they really have tremendous idea!


As you can see below, all of us look very stressful in brainstorming the idea 😆.

Dr. Nurul also showed us some examples of games that had been designed by her former students to give us the idea on how the game should be created.

After all, I can conclude that every time I attend Dr. Nurul class, I will completely occupied by lots of new things, new information and new techniques in enhancing the Teaching and Learning processes in school. I will definitely use all of these methods in the future! 😀