Joseph Schwab: Problem Solving
Overview

Schwab has developed an approach to learning that does the following:

1. Students work to solve problems of their own construction or those posed by the teacher.
2. Students work both in class and out of class.
3. The teacher serves as a helper, guide, and resource provider.
4. Students often work in teams.
5. Students seek to learn process as well as product.
6. School is more like real-life solution seeking.
7. Parents and community are often important associates in the learning.
8. Since many activities are open-ended, there may be a variety of appropriate solutions and processes.

When developing open-ended problems, the focus should be relevant to the curriculum and demonstrate the following characteristics:

• Provide for active, hands-on experience rather than reliance on printed materials;
• Allow for a variety of approaches for successful conclusion;
• Be constructed in such a way that students have access to necessary materials;
• Be completed within appropriate time constraints;
• Utilize the processes of knowing, including observing, inferring, predicting, graphing, communicating, classifying, and collaborating;
• Be interesting and challenging; and
• Provide development of self and ability to solve problems and answer personal questions.

Illustration of Joseph Schwab's method-If we were to use open-ended problems with this class, we might ask you to organize a team, clarify roles, establish time lines and responsibility, and determine the final product for one of the following illustrations:

* Determine student attitudes about teaching method(s).
* Does weather affect student outcomes?
* How does time of day affect teaching success?
* Determine the characteristics of truly effective teaching.
* How much paper waste is generated through various teaching strategies?
* What are the most valued books in a teacher's library?
* How do teachers maintain physical fitness in this community?
* Determine community attitude about _____.
* Determine student preferences for _____.
* Determine teachers attitudes regarding _____.
* What is the amount of caffeine use by teachers and students in our school?

Many teachers utilize a variety of approaches to allow students to report their findings. Methods that are most often utilized are poster sessions, group videos, and symposia.
Examples of open-ended problems from several disciplines include:

Science:
* How can an insect crawl?
* How do plants respond to light?
* How tall are third grade students?
Art:
* Design a logo for product X.
* Construct colors that reflect happiness, cold, hunger, joy, etc.
* Construct a picture of yourself in the style of Rembrandt, Picasso, Homer, or Chagal.
Social Studies:
* Determine what elderly people eat in this community.
* Determine citizen attitude about _____.
* What percentage of a person's income is spent on each of the following: housing, food, transportation, insurance, and entertainment.
Mathematics:
* Calculate the best buy for dog food in your community.
* Based on your personal history of weight gain, calculate your weight at the age of your retirement.

An excellent variation of the teacher developed problem is problem formulation.

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Hilda Taba: Inductive Thinking
Overview

For much of the twentieth century, teachers sought to teach discreet facts. Now it is essential to seek ways of teaching children how to think, how to process information from many points of view, and how to solve problems. The sheer volume of information and the wide accessibility to the Internet make mere knowledge acquisition of secondary value.

One way to categorize information is to use the higher order processes of classification. Hilda Taba developed a multipurpose approach that provides an excellent occasional teaching option. The method involves three discreet stages. First, students make an exhaustive list of observations, ideas, or concepts. Second, students gather all similar items together. Third, the students name each category. Students are then assigned to category groups and proceed to research their topic. A teacher's role is to facilitate acquisition of relevant information sources. The final product is a report, portfolio, video presentation, or open house project fair.

Illustration of Hilda Taba's method-If a teacher used Taba's approach to teach about the broad array of teaching strategies, here is how the lesson might proceed:

First, we would pose the question to the class: "What comes to mind when you think of teaching strategies or methods?" This first step serves as a pretest, with the length of the list generated providing an indicator of knowledge level. Imagine that we are able to generate the following list of teaching strategies.
From this list, which would be recorded on a news print tablet or wipe board and might take several class sessions to develop, we would next set about finding groups of approaches with some identifiable similarities. For example, activities associated with group work could form one area. Another area could be student projects. The third phase would be appropriately naming each category. Finally, assignments to interested students would initiate the information gathering and report developing and presenting phase of the work. Again, teachers who use this approach use the final report phase as a good way to show off student work through displays, student fairs, video projects, or portfolios. There are many ways to evaluate student progress.