Running head: CROSS-CURRICULAR PBL CLE

Cross-curricular Problem-Based Constructivist Learning Environment Design Project Proposal Alice Campbell, Shawn Harris, and Fareed Teja University of British Columbia ETEC 510

CROSS-CURRICULAR PBL CLE

Key Frameworks Problem-based learning (PBL) allows students to attempt to solve or contribute to an overall driving question or problem within the context of different curricular subject areas (Barrows & Tamblyn, 1980; Jonassen, 1999). Our ETEC 510 design project aims to leverage theories associated with PBL, constructivism, and constructivist learning environments (CLEs) to create an online PBL space for ninth grade students at Union School Haiti (USH), an American-accredited k-12 school located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As a school that caters to Port-Au-Princes upper class citizens and future leaders, it is important that students at USH be made aware of the serious issues that Haiti is currently facing, and begin to critically think about how to contribute to solving them. According to Jonassen (1999), the first step in creating a CLE is designing a driving question through which student learn domain content. The driving question that ninth grade students at USH will focus on for this PBL CLE is: how can the USH community improve the accessibility and quality of education for all Haitians in order to ultimately encourage Haitians, and Haitis economic growth? This problem puts the USH students at the forefront of the question by giving them ownership of the problem, which is recognized as being key to a successful CLE and driving problem (Barron et al., 1998; Jonassen, 1999). Additionally, this question contributes to the schools overall vision of producing youth who are conscious of social issues. Furthermore, this question is culturally sensitive to the context in Haiti as 80-90% of its primary schools are private and operate largely outside of government regulations and funding (Cabrera, Neville & Novick, 2010). Less than half of 20 year olds (as of 2007) have completed secondary school, which correlates to the high unemployment of youth - at nearly

CROSS-CURRICULAR PBL CLE 50% (Justesen & Verner, 2007). As such, accessibility and quality of education are key issues. Additionally, being one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere, Haiti is in real need of economic growth, and it is widely understood that access to education is the key agent to systemic change for Haitis economy; as Amuedo-Dorantes, Georges and Pozo, a team of economists and educators, recently and bluntly stated: few would argue that the current levels of human capital in Haiti are sufficient to sustain economic growth (Amuedo-Dorantes, Georges & Pozo, 2010, p. 225). Finally, since Haitis official languages are Haitian Creole and

French with Haitian Creole being spoken by virtually the entire population and French only by the countrys elite class (about 10% of the population) (Schieffelin & Doucet, 1994) the language of instruction will be a key issue that students enrolled at USH, where English is the primary language, will need to understand. In addition to the multilingual nature of Haitian society, in which language use is very strongly correlated with social class (Schieffelin & Doucet, 1994; Youssef, 2002) literacy is also a major concern, as only 66.2% of Haitian youth in 2008 were literate, compared with 97.6% in Mexico and 94% in the Dominican Republic (Amuedo-Dorantes, Georges & Pozo, 2010, p. 228; New London Group, 1996). Situating the problem in the same context in which the students are embedded makes the chosen driving question meaningful, engaging, and relevant to them, thereby providing sufficient motivation to work through the problem within the domains of different subject areas. The design of this PBL CLE will be guided primarily by Jonassens (1999) approach to designing CLEs. The key learning theories that will be utilized while designing this CLE are constructivism (Piaget, 1971, 1973), constructionism (Harel & Papert, 1991; Papert, 1980), and distributed cognition (Hutchins, 1995). These theories will serve as the basis for the activities designed as part of our PBL CLE. Constructivism recognizes that learning originates within the

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learner and that knowledge is constructed through processes of assimilation and accommodation. Through his work with youth, Papert built on Piagets theories on constructivism to develop a learning theory called constructionism (Harel & Papert, 1991). In a nutshell, constructionism claims that learning happens most effectively when one builds ideas in his/her mind as part of building artifacts in the world. Finally, the theory of distributed cognition recognizes that cognitive processes actually occur outside of the head, which Hutchins calls Cognition in the Wild (1995). According to Hutchins, distributed cognition looks for a broader class of cognitive events and does not expect all such events to be encompassed by the skin or skull of an individual (2000, p.1). Distributed cognition broadens the spectrum beyond the boundaries of the individual by including interactions between people and with resources and materials in the environment. The framework also recognizes that cognition cannot be separated from the study of culture because agents live in complex cultural environments (Hollan et al., 2000). Distributed cognition has been leveraged extensively in human-computer interaction design. For this project, educational activities will be designed towards ninth grade learners. The n inth grade students at USH can be classified as digital natives (Prensky, 2001) as they have grown-up alongside computers and web-based technologies. These technologies are also highly available to them, both at home and at school. Therefore, making ninth grade level web-based materials and resources available over the Internet is appropriate for our design. Additionally, multiple media formats (text, audio, video, interactivities, etc.) will be utilized to reach students in a variety of ways to cater to different learning styles and capacities. Related cases, reflection journals or blogs, and social activities will also be included both online and face-to-face. Activities will be designed such that they are meaningful, engaging, and focused on the problem

CROSS-CURRICULAR PBL CLE at hand. Additionally, experts will be invited to speak / debate about the problem and possible solutions in an effort to enrich the program.

Intentions and Positions This design is intended to accomplish several objectives. As a cross-curricular project, it will enable students to see how domain-specific knowledge and skills (for example, writing and editing skills in English and the language arts) are intrinsically connected to knowledge and skills developed in other domains. More specifically, as a problem-based learning project, it is designed to lead students to fully understand, through direct application, the relevance of these domain-specific knowledge and skills to matters of high social importance in this developing nation The students at USH come from Haitis upper class; Teja, who works at the school, notes that many are sons and daughters of prominent business and political leaders in Port-au-Prince. It has long been recognized by researchers in education that schools often function as institutions of social reproduction (Collins, 2009; Foley, 1990; Willis, 1977) that preserve, rather than transform, racial, class and gender inequalities. Particularly in a nation like Haiti which is so highly stratified by class (Youssef, 2002), it is highly likely that many students at USH are Haitis future leaders; their education at USH can indeed shape the directions that this developing nation will take. Given the students current socio-political location within Haiti (as sons and daughters of Haitian leaders), they are also keenly interested in political and social issues in their country. Therefore, this design is intended to introduce students to issues of pressing political and social importance in Haiti - namely, access to education, government

CROSS-CURRICULAR PBL CLE oversight of education and the impacts of Haitian access to education on both their individual economic potential, and the countrys overall economic performance. It should be made explicit that the intention of this project is not to foster social inequality in Haiti, or simply bolster USH students elite status within the country. Rather, one crucial objective of this design is to engage students in consciousness raising of their social positioning and privilege, and to gain a deep understanding of the social barriers that other Haitians face in accessing education. Consciousness raising as an educational objective has a longstanding history in the Caribbean, though primarily amongst impoverished populations and often in nonformal educational settings (La Belle, 1987). It has often been achieved through concrete discussion of the historical and contemporary parameters and struggles of peoples everyday lives. Through our interactivities, we will enhance students access to the insights and experiences of those who do not enjoy the same privileges and benefits that they do. When

engaging with the perspectives of multiple stakeholders in Haitian education (see Interactivities), students will explore how access to education affects Haitian citizens economic opportunities. We recognize that this element of our design will require significant self-reflexivity on the part of students, and can be very challenging for them; one of us (Campbell) has considerable experience in designing consciousness raising learning activities for relatively privileged youth in her case, teaching colonialism and its enduring effects on indigenous peoples in North America to non-indigenous students, and poverty policy in Texas to privileged Texan students that will transfer over to our design. Providing ample scaffolding (Jonassen, 1999) and opportunities for safe, open-ended reflective learning in a genuine and collaborative community of learners through blogs, journals, and field trips will be a fundamental aspect of this design that involve deep self-reflexivity.

CROSS-CURRICULAR PBL CLE Another crucial facet of our design is the involvement of learners as problem-solvers. The problem that they will be addressing - access to education in Haiti - is one that students can

directly relate to, and that is of pressing social and political concern. This design is premised on a deep respect of the students insights and their capacities to contribute to solving this problem in Haiti. As part of our scaffolding in the design, teachers will be actively learning and reflecting alongside the learners. On one hand, this will demonstrate that the problem of access to education in Haiti doesnt have a known solution that can be found in the back of a textbook thereby helping students to recognize that their situated knowledge (Haraway, 1988) is valued by the teaching and learning community. On another hand, teachers will be modeling how to engage in self-reflexive learning. In order to contribute to solving this issue, students will be learning about economic issues facing Haiti, including how the global economy affects local social conditions. In this country where 90% of education is provided privately or by non-governmental organizations with very little state oversight - students will also learn and think about the how, and by whom, education can be most effectively delivered to the countrys population. Within the domain of the humanities, students will learn and interpret art and literature from Haitians that speaks to the challenges that they have faced in achieving their goals and objectives in a highly stratified society. Key Concepts and Contexts As we are aware, Haiti is in real need of economic growth. And as educators and researchers we believe that education is the key agent to systemic change for Haitis economy.

CROSS-CURRICULAR PBL CLE Therefore the process of learning and achieving is imperative to the lives of the country and its people.

Commonsense knowledge about the real world is in the form of procedures or sequences of actions for achieving particular goals. This design for the ninth graders will in fact represent such knowledge using the notion of process. Web based materials will be provided, online and face-to-face activities will be given, which will allow the learners to state facts about the effects of doing things in the problem domain of interest. Other activities will also be provided, which in turn will show how this knowledge can be used to achieve particular goals or to form intentions regarding their achievement. Learning is a persisting change in human performance or performance potentialbrought about as a result of the learners interaction with the environment (Driscoll, 1994, pp. 8-9). How these ninth graders learn, how they perceive knowledge, and their behavior is of utmost importance to this design. According to Allen (2000), teachers and students can positively impact learning if they plan to ensure that the design, development and sequence of instruction are effectively processed by the learner. Other factors such as the delivery and reception of instruction, and the evaluation by the teacher and learning by the student impact heavily on the learning process. It is believed that learners experience at home and in their general community and culture can have a significant effect on the development of cognitive processes. Learners are viewed by some as empty, passive vessels waiting on the instructor to fill them with knowledge. On the other hand, others see learners as those who actively construct and process new information (Ertmer & Newby, 1993). For this design, it is the learners who will be fully engaged and immersed in the problem solving. Unlike children in the learning environment

CROSS-CURRICULAR PBL CLE of the 1950s and 1960s, children today are not as regimented to follow a precise schedule of instruction. Rather, they are sometimes invited to explore and discover the many avenues for acquiring knowledge. In other words, more knowledge is available to them through multiple media sources. In designing this project we will discover that learners of different ages, and to some extent learners of the same age such as these ninth grade learners, will have different thinking and reasoning capabilities. We will also discover that environmental factors can definitely impact learners thinking and reasoning capabilities for either the better or the worst. Coaching is focused on the learners performance. Scaffolding is a more systematic approach to supporting the learner, focusing on the task, the environment, the teacher and the learner. Scaffolding provides temporary frameworks to support learning and student performance beyond the learners capabilities (Jonassen, 1999). The use of scaffolding for this design project will be of much value as it will facilitate students with their thinking and reasoning abilities. It has been proven that scaffolding is a valuable tool for teaching and learning. Scaffolding students learning using instructional approaches to solve the issue of improving economic growth in Haiti, will more likely than not prove fruitful. This style of instruction provides students with the intellectual support to function at their full potential for their individual development and to solve the issue at hand. Learners need to be helped to perform that which they cannot do alone. Having performed desired skills, they must learn to perform without the scaffolds that support their performance (Jonassen, 1999). As researchers and theorists have pointed out, the use of technology will allow learners to present their work to audiences beyond the classroom. With Project-based learning, students will learn from these experiences and apply them to their lives in the real world. PBL CLE along with the use of

CROSS-CURRICULAR PBL CLE technology can motivate the ninth grade students who might otherwise find school boring or

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meaningless to investigate, analyze and collaborate for the design project. Therefore the two will work hand in hand to improve education and in so doing encourage and increase economic growth in Haiti. Like with every country, there is a class structure and power struggle. Haiti is no exception. The disparity between the privileged and nonprivileged segments has not changed greatly since colonial days. Only a minute percent of the population enjoys the countrys wealth. Although Haiti was one of the first countries to establish independence, it has not been able to rise out of its political and economic anarchy. Hence, the reasons to create this design, so learners can begin to improve holistically and in turn help to fashion a viable nation. Interactivities This project will rely heavily on the facilities provided by Moodle. The main Moodle page will utilize a topics-based format, which will be structured such that it is separated into subject areas (i.e. English, Math, Social Studies, etc.). The initial topic will be an introduction to problem-based learning. In each subject area, activities and resources relating to the driving question and specific to the subject area domain will be outlined. Students will be guided through the order that the activities need to be completed. Criteria for each activity will also be developed. The calendar will be used to keep students informed of due dates, and a web links section will be utilized to provide links to important and helpful websites. Interactive forums will be relied on heavily to allow for social collaboration between students and teachers. Question and Answer forums will be used for students to answer questions posed by lessons. General discussion areas will be utilized to generate debates and

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discussions. Students will both initiate topics and respond to topics initiated by their peers. Web Quests will be created to allow for students to become familiar with the subject matter. These guided web-based exploration activities will include resources like newspapers, journals, videos, audio, and other interactivities. Students will be guided through a series of loosely structured, dynamic activities to gain an understanding of the problem context within the domain of the subject area that they are focused on. Students will also take advantage of Moodles blog facility to allow for frequent reflection of the learning activities designed in this PBL CLE. As an example of an interactive lesson, consider students learning about the concept of access to education. Students would first be probed with highly general but personally relevant questions concerning access such as the following:

Do you know anyone who never went to school? Do you know anyone your age that does not go to school now? Why do you think it is important for you to go to school? Why do you go to USH instead of another school in Haiti? Do you think that everyone should go to school? Why or why not? What is the effect of not going to school?

These questions could be asked in an online or face-to-face discussion, a blog, or a short essay. Once the subject is broached, students will then actively seek knowledge from Internet searches, online Journal sources, and other selected online resources. Students will then be asked to reflect on what they have learned about access to education in their blog. They will be asked to answer questions concerning how education can impact a country or region, and how it can be used to further political agendas. We could further enrich the lesson by planning site visits to local

CROSS-CURRICULAR PBL CLE schools and NGOs that are doing work in education in Haiti. This would allow students to

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understand the complexity of the problem, and what some organizations are doing to help solve it. This may help them brainstorm possible projects to take on as a culminating activity. The possibilities are virtually endless. It should also be noted that teachers will need to be involved in the learning process alongside students in order for this learning design to be effective. Living in the society and understanding the driving question is essential to being able to provide the loose guidance to students that will be required for the activities. Teachers will also model reflexivity as they modify and construct new knowledge based on their understandings and interpretations of the activities. In order to create the interactivities, a detailed outline of the learning activities will need to be created. Therefore, the designers of the PBL CLE will need to research the topic and generate learning resources and activities that are relevant. The activities will need to be age appropriate and sequenced accordingly. The culminating activity will be for students to create a project outlining how students at USH can contribute to the driving question presented at the outset of the PBL CLE.

CROSS-CURRICULAR PBL CLE References Allen, K. (2000). Technology in Education, An Introduction. Kingston, Jamaica: Stephensons Litho Press Ltd.

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Amuedo-Dorantes, C., Georges, A., & Pozo, S. (2010). Migration, Remittances, and Childrens Schooling in Haiti. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 630, 224-244. Barron, B., Schwartz, L., Vye, N.J., Moore, A., Petrosino, A., Zech, L., Bransford, J.D., & The Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbelt (1998). Doing with understanding: Lessons from research on problem and project-based learning. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 7(3&4), 271-311. Barrows, H.S. (1985). How to Design a Problem-based Curriculum for the Pre-clinical Years. New-York: Springer-Verlag. Borich, G. (1996). Effective Teaching Methods (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Cabrera, A., Neville, F., & Novick, S. (2010). Harnessing human potential in Haiti. Innovations, Fall 2010, 143-149. Collins, J. (2009). Social Reproduction in Classrooms and Schools. Annual Review of Anthropology, 38, 33-48. Foley, D. (1990). Learning Capitalist Culture: Deep in the Heart of Tejas. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

CROSS-CURRICULAR PBL CLE Jonassen, D. (1999). Designing constructivist learning environments. In C. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional design theories and models: Volume II. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Harel, I., & Papert, S. (Eds.) (1991). Constructionism. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

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Haraway, D. (1988). Situated Knowledge: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspectives. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575-599. Hollan J. D., Hutchins E., & Kirsh D. (2000). Distributed cognition: A new foundation for human-computer interaction research. ACM ToCHI, 7(2), 174-196. Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the Wild. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Hutchins, E. (2000). Distributed Cognition. Retrieved June 3rd, 2011 from http://files.meetup.com/410989/DistributedCognition.pdf. Justesen, M., & Verner, D. (2007). Factors Impacting Youth Development in Haiti. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4110. La Belle, T. (1987). From Consciousness Raising to Popular Education in Latin American adn the Caribbean. Comparative Education Review, 31(2), 201-217. New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60-92. Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas. New York: Basic Books. Piaget, J. (1971). Psychology and Epistemology: Towards a Theory of Knowledge. New York: Viking Press.

CROSS-CURRICULAR PBL CLE Piaget, J. (1973). To Understand is to Invent: the Future of Education. New York: Grossman. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1. On the Horizon, (9)5, 1-6. Schieffelin, B., & Doucet, R. (1994). The real Haitian Creole: ideology, metalinguistics, and orthographic, choice. American Ethnologist, (21)1, 176-200. Willis, P. (1977). Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs. Farnborough, England: Saxon House. Youssef, V. (2002). Issues of Bilingual Education in the Caribbean: The Cases of Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 5(3), 182-193.

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