EDTEC 700Using Problem-Based

Learning

to Enhance Decision-Making Skills: Week 2

Bernie Dodge, PhD

San Diego State University

Progress Report

• What problem have you proposed?

• Who are the learners?

• What is the context?

• What challenges do you anticipate?

Finding Problems to Learn from

• Start with outcomes

• Ask yourself: where is this skill or knowledge applied in the world?

• Find or fabricate a situation in which something is not optimal that requires that skill/knowledge.

Steps in PBL

1. Determine whether a problem exists.2. Create an exact statement of the problem.3. Identify information needed to understand

the problem.4. Gather information and organize it.5. Generate possible solutions.6. Decide on a solution. 7. Present the solution.8. Reflect on & evaluate.

Finkle and Torp, 1995

Pareto Analysis

• Useful at the earliest stages of the PBL process

• Purpose: decide which aspects of the problem to work on first

• Based on the Pareto Principle of 80-20.

Exercise 3

• Based on a true story.

• Help Ms. X decide what aspects of her teaching she should work on.

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec700/DM/exercise3.htm

6 Thinking Hats

Blue Hat

• Hat worn by people chairing meetings.

• Pays attention to the process and directs the other hats to pitch in

White Hat

• focus on the data available.

• look at the information you have, and see

• look for gaps in your knowledge, and either try to fill them or take account of them.

Green Hat

• stands for creativity. This is where you can develop creative solutions to a problem.

• freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little criticism of ideas.

Red Hat

• looks at problems using intuition, gut reaction, and emotion.

• tries to think how other people will react emotionally.

• tries to understand the responses of people who do not fully know your reasoning.

Yellow Hat

• the optimistic viewpoint that helps you to see all the benefits of the decision and the value in it.

• helps you to keep going when everything looks gloomy and difficult.

Black Hat

• looks at all the bad points of the decision.

• tries to see why it might not work.

• highlights the weak points in a plan.

Exercise 4

• Pick a problem or decision of personal interest to you.

• Use the worksheet to think about your problem in 6 different ways and develop a fresh set of insights.

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec700/DM/exercise4.htm

Decision Trees

• Most complex of the 5 we’ve covered

• Appropriate when there are a sequence of decisions to be made

• Leads to quantifiable end points to guide decisions

Decision Tree Steps

• Pick a starting point

• Identify two or three choices that could be made

• For each choice, pick 2-3 followup choices that one could make

• Carry through as far as feasible

Decision Tree Steps

After the final set of choices…• Identify the values of the final outcomes

in terms of whatever variable is important to you

• Identify the probabilities of each outcome• Multiply the probabilities of each by the

value of the outcome.

Exercise 5

• Use decision tree analysis to break a situation down into choices, consequences and probabilities.

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec700/DM/exercise5.htm

PBL & the Digital Divide

• The One Laptop per Child Project is bringing technology to villages in developing countries.

• Constructivism and PBL underlie the project’s goals.

http://www.laptop.org/

Wrapping it Up

• Final lesson design due March 3.

• Leave comments on the wiki for two other lessons this coming Wednesday, Feb 28.

• Right now: reflect on what you learned, how you learned, what you do with what you learned.