Everyday Problem-Based Learning: Quick Projects to Build Problem-Solving Fluency

Brian Pete · Robin Fogarty

Oct 2017 · ASCD

About this eBook

Educators know that problem-based learning answers that perennial student question: “When will I ever use this in real life?” Faced with a meaty problem to solve, students finally “get” why they need to learn the content and are energized to do so.

But here’s the exciting part: problem-based learning doesn’t require weeks of study or an end-of-year project. In this book, Brian Pete and Robin Fogarty show how you can use problem-based learning as a daily approach to helping students learn authentic and relevant content and skills. They explain how to engage students in each of the seven steps in the problem-based learning model, so students learn how to develop good questions, launch their inquiry, gather information, organize their information, create evidence, present their findings, and assess their learning. Using practical examples, they also describe how to help students master these seven important thinking skills: develop, analyze, reason, understand, solve, apply, and evaluate.

To put all this in context, the authors offer seven “PBL in a Nutshell” lessons that can easily be incorporated in a single classroom period. Depth of thinking and ease of implementation--this is problem-based learning at its best.

About the author

Brian Pete is president and co-founder of Robin Fogarty & Associates, an international educational consulting firm. Pete has a rich background in professional development and is entering his fifteenth year as an author/presenter, working exclusively with the adult learner. Pete visits schools throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. He is the coauthor of Data! Dialogue! Decisions!

Robin Fogarty, PhD, is president of Robin Fogarty & Associates. Her doctorate is in curriculum and human resource development from Loyola University of Chicago. A leading proponent of the thoughtful classroom, Fogarty has trained educators throughout the world in curriculum, instruction, and assessment strategies. Fogarty is the author of numerous publications, including Brain-Compatible Classrooms, Ten Things New Teachers Need to Succeed, Literacy Matters, How to Integrate the Curricula, and Informative Assessment.
Pete and Fogarty are the coauthors of Twelve Brain Principles That Make the Difference, Nine Best Practices That Make the Difference, The Adult Learner, A Look at Transfer, Close the Achievement Gap, From Staff Room to Classroom, Supporting Differentiated Instruction, How to Teach Thinking Skills Within the Common Core, School Leader’s Guide to Common Core, and more. Their book The Right to Be Literate was named the 2017 Teachers Choice Award Winner for Professional Development.