Reflect on PBL as a Collaborative Teaching and Learning Strategy

Video Transcription

Hello, and thank you for joining me for Reflect on PBL as a Collaborative Teaching and Learning Strategy. Today, we will answer the essential question of in what ways can I reflect on the development of PBL in a unit?

Today, we're going to look at plus minus delta. And we're going to look at it from a student point of view. So in this scenario, we're going to have students reflect with a peer on what worked-- that's the plus-- what didn't-- that's the minus-- and how we can improve it. That's the delta.

A couple of things before we look more closely at this example is that plus deltas can be used by the whole class or by individual students. And essentially, this is translated into an opportunity for students to self reflect and improve on their performance and on their own learning.

It's important to note that there needs to be follow up to reinforce the plus minus delta. And we've talked already in this unit about students being reflective and incorporating that into the unit. And plus minus delta is a really great way to get students focusing on reflection.

Let's look more closely at the chart. If you'll remember, we had a PBL lesson that used understanding by design. And the focus was that students in a secondary biology class were going to be doing research on pollutant levels in their local waterways. They were going to collaborate with students from other counties to see if they had similar problems and with stakeholders in the community. Their final project was that they would present their findings and possible solutions.

This is an example of a group of students who got together and completed a plus minus delta. I'm not going to go over each one of these points in depth, but we'll go over a few. For instance, one plus is that the student said that they liked using Google Docs for collaboration. One minus, however, was that using Skype for face-to-face time had a lot of challenges. A delta for that minus is that this teacher could possibly train students in Skype prior to use.

Another plus for this student was the use of Google Forms. In this case, the student used Google Forms and sent the forms to the local stakeholders to virtually communicate with them. However, the student decided that they were heavily reliant on virtual rather than person-to-person communication and collaboration. And while it was convenient, she felt that something was lost in translation.

A delta for this is to redirect students' focus on face-to-face collaboration where they seem to rely too much on virtual collaboration or when face-to-face communication and collaboration seems to make more sense than virtual communication and collaboration.

So this is what you need to direct the students on when you are trying to get them to use plus minus delta as a way to reflect on PBL. Have a peer complete the chart with the student. And these are some questions that the students could ask each other to help generate the plus minus and delta lists. One is, what did you learn that you will keep the same? That would be a plus.

Another is what will you change? That would be a minus. And why will you change it? And how will you change it? These are both deltas. To reflect, will you use plus minus delta in your classroom? Why or why not?

To review, today, we answered the central question of in what ways can I reflect on the development of PBL in a unit? For more information on how to apply what you learned in this video, please view the additional resources section that accompanies this video presentation. The additional resources section includes hyperlinks useful for applications of the course material, including a brief description of each resource. Thank you for joining me. And happy teaching.