Why & How We Apply PBL to Science-Gifted Education?

Abstract

This study is based upon the reflections of two teachers and fifteen students as they experience problem-based learning (PBL) for the first time. A PBL exercise was integrated into a curriculum-based Earth Science field to meet specific learning requirements of gifted students. If you give affirmative answers to all these questions, it will not be the distinctive program for the gifted children (Passow, 1982). PBL is an educational approach where a purposefully illstructured real-world problem initiates learning and the teacher serves as a coach instead of an information repository. Problem-based learning is currently used in the various disciplines. However, the field of gifted education does not yet implement this type of teaching and learning approach very often. In the present study the PBL implementation created a new learning environment for both students and teachers, and PBL was evaluated as an educative strategy. The application of the instructional approach could have been improved through more spontaneous student support. Interview analyses indicate that students favor learning via PBL, but some students suggest that embedding teacher-directed lessons within a PBL unit would benefit the students more than an exclusively PBL-based curriculum. So the overall contribution of this study is to show theoretical justification and the implementation of problem-based learning in developing optimal learning experience for gifted students in the domain of science, since this type of teaching and learning approach is considered most compatible with the characteristics of the gifted students.