Learning approaches that address the messy problems of the real world is critical in teaching students to “think like a scientist” (Hunter et al., 2006; Lopatto, 2004). Given the grand challenges facing society that include resource issues and climate change, geoscientists depend on their ability to use a full set of problem solving skills to address these challenges and make individual decisions to ensure a sustainable earth.
- Students work collaboratively to solve problems while professors provide a structured, guided context.
- Class structure supports students as they apply and synthesize new concepts they are learning.
- Faculty introduce new concepts and play an active role interacting with each group of students as they work on problems.
- Problems become more sophisticated, reinforcing earlier course concepts.
- Provide a structured, guided context for solving problems.
- Encourage students to shift from learning by memorizing to learning by doing.
- Help students develop problem solving strategies.
- Assess student learning informally.
- Help students connect new concepts back to a solid base of earlier material.
- Acknowledge the challenging nature of the problems while affirming students’ abilities to persevere and be successful.
- Identify and clear up misconceptions.
- Increase student comfort with faculty by providing opportunities for professors to positively impact student learning via personal interactions.
- By collaboratively solving problems, students become active participants in the classroom and have the opportunity to immediately apply new information.
- The faculty presence in the classroom allows formative assessment on an ongoing basis and the opportunity to identify and correct misconceptions as they arise.
- Because students are solving problems in class and getting immediate feedback, the faculty-coached approach increases students’ studying efficiency and effectiveness.
- Faculty can fill in missing gaps in understanding, get students back on track quickly and guide students towards solving problems independently.
- A sense of community makes it easier for students to ask questions.
- Individuals learn they are not the only ones with questions.