ACADEMIA Letters

Problem-Based Learning as a professional learning model

helped me with the sudden demand of remote learning,
and I believe is helping me offer students ownership and
their own voice in their learning.
Jamie S Pyper

I have been using Problem-Based Learning (PBL) as a learning model in a university level
professional learning course for three years—a course in which preservice teachers learn to
be secondary school mathematics teachers. Anecdotally, it has been very successful, empir-
ically, research results are showing positive outcomes too. Because of the positive outcomes
emerging from a study on PBL as a professional learning model, I decided to try it out with
my graduate level methodology and methods course, “Mixed Methods” that started in January
2020 as a face-to-face class in our Faculty building. Then the pandemic hit, and from teaching
in the classroom on March 10th into a lock-down with closed university buildings by March
17th, I was suddenly in an unfamiliar online environment using Zoom with my graduate class.
The transition from classroom to Zoomroom for both the mathematics education course and
the graduate research course was seamless, and I attribute this successful transition to the
learning model I was employing, PBL.
As 2020 comes to an end and I am still teaching remotely, I have taken some time to
critically think about what it is about PBL that appears to be so valuable for learners and their
learning environment. In this Letter, I will briefly, outline the structure and features of PBL,
describe some initial empirical findings from a study of PBL in a professional learning setting,
and explain what I am beginning to realize about PBL and how it allows me to respond to the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls to action (TRC, 2015) and increasing the ways
students of colour can see themselves in their learning, even when their instructor comes from

Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Jamie S Pyper, pyperj@[Link]

Citation: Pyper, J.S. (2021). Problem-Based Learning as a professional learning model helped me with the
sudden demand of remote learning, and I believe is helping me offer students ownership and their own voice in
their learning. Academia Letters, Article 563. [Link]
1
a white settler Euro-western background.
Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is not only for mathematics, or only about learning with
problems, learning through problems, case studies, projects, or group work. It is a rigor-
ous and structured way of collaboratively approaching a relevant and contextual problem one
would naturally see in one’s work. With practice, the structured steps of PBL become habitu-
alized (Costa & Kallick, 2008), and “knowing-to” act with all the resources available (Mason
& Spence, 1999) begins to form an authentic growth mindset for professional practice. The
five goals of PBL, “Construct an extensive and flexible knowledge base; Develop effective
problem-solving skills; Develop self-directed, life-long learning skills; Become effective col-
laborators; and Become intrinsically motivated to learn” (Hmelo-Silver, 2004, p. 240), cap-
ture the many different aspects of learning that are demanded of our education systems. These
goals appear in conceptualizations such as 21st Century Skills and to what liberal education
and education for the betterment of the workforce aspire.
Lots of research literature exists for PBL and shows many positive and valuable outcomes
from this style of learning (Strobel & Van Barneveld, 2009). For example, in comparison
with control groups of students not in PBL learners in PBL can show greater self-regulation
and problem-solving skills (Seyan, 2016), and have shown improved perceptions of problem-
solving ability (Temel, 2014), increased creative thinking ability and self-regulation learning
skills (Yoon, Woo, Treagust, & Chandrasegaran, 2014), and increases in academic achieve-
ment (Gunter & Alpat, 2017).
My contribution to understanding the effectiveness of PBL comes from the research out-
comes of a two-year Mixed Methods study of PBL as a professional learning model for sec-
ondary school mathematics preservice teachers. The mathematics education course was de-
signed in three parts: an initial social-constructivist part of the course where I brought the
learning tasks to the students, stated the focus, assigned homework, and created a learning
space centred on instructor facilitated collaborative work with manipulatives and explorations
of teaching strategies; a PBL middle section; and a student-led workshop-style experiential
last part. Study results show (an article accepted by Teaching and Teacher Education (TATE),
and from other results at the moment unpublished),

• More statistically significant correlations in the PBL part amongst the constructs of
teacher efficacy and mathematics beliefs,

• Preservice teacher beliefs were more clearly connected to planned practical pedagogical
actions at the end of the PBL part,

• During the PBL part of the course preservice teachers expressed a greater level of crit-
ical thinking in their discussions, and

Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Jamie S Pyper, pyperj@[Link]

Citation: Pyper, J.S. (2021). Problem-Based Learning as a professional learning model helped me with the
sudden demand of remote learning, and I believe is helping me offer students ownership and their own voice in
their learning. Academia Letters, Article 563. [Link]
2
 • Preservice teachers realized how much work and learning they had accomplished in the
PBL part, in comparison to the beginning part of the course and often more than many
of their other courses.

To imagine the students’ learning experience during a PBL cycle1 , consider the metaphor
of a bicycle wheel. The centre hub is the Problem of Practice with specific articulated learning
goals. The students work with the Problem of Practice and decide what is important for them
to learn to move the group towards its achievement of the learning goals. At the end of each
Team meeting, each student identifies something they wish to learn about before the next Team
meeting—a spoke of the wheel. In the time between Team meetings, they travel out the spoke
of the wheel as far as they wish to go with their learning. They then return on the spoke to
teach their peers in the next Team meeting. This process repeats with each Team meeting until
the team feels they have achieved the learning goals (or the end of the cycle). Each spoke on
the wheel represents a different but relevant point of interest and learning focus; students get
to pick which spoke they feel is important and allows them to contribute to understanding the
problem. This is what differentiated learning (Tomlinson, 2000), providing a zone of proximal
development (Vygotsky, see Daniels, 2016), and student ownership of their own learning can
look like.
In the implementation of PBL, the problem to be solved is relevant to the learner be-
cause the learner inhabits the meaningful space in which the problem exists. This is similar
to Professional Collaborative Learning (Vescio, Ross, & Adams, 2008) processes such as In-
structional Rounds (DeLuca, C., Klinger, D., Pyper, J. S., & Woods, J., 2015) in which the
Problem of Practice being explored is a problem that exists for the learner in their own working
and living environment. This sense of space in PBL in which the problem and the problem
solver exist together also parallels other ways of knowing and foregrounds the student in their
own learning. For example, Indigenous Ways of Knowing2 is based on relationships to the
land and to each other. But it is more than just a story one tells another; it is a philosophy, a
worldview that is embedded in practice, culture, and belief. Learning is a real (both practi-
cal and conceptual) experience for the learner because the learning context is situated on the
1
A PBL cycle lasts for three to five class periods (Team meetings); each Team has an expert ‘other’ – a
Coach/“Tutor” – sitting with them; and ends with a peer- and self-assessment session.
2
The following that relates to Indigenous Ways of Knowing is not from my own life. I am a settler of white,
European ancestry. The knowledge I present in this Letter comes from personal communications, my own reading,
my work with Indigenous Research methodologies with Indigenous graduate students, and my teacher professional
development work with a number of Indigenous communities and their education efforts. I value and appreciate
the opportunity to work and live on ceded and unceded lands of the Indigenous peoples of Canada, and humbly
present what I am learning, always ready to be helped with my interpretations and understandings as I work
towards my own expression of two-eyed seeing of a better world.

Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Jamie S Pyper, pyperj@[Link]

Citation: Pyper, J.S. (2021). Problem-Based Learning as a professional learning model helped me with the
sudden demand of remote learning, and I believe is helping me offer students ownership and their own voice in
their learning. Academia Letters, Article 563. [Link]
3
land, in a relevant environment, and with problems that authentically and naturally exist in
that environment. Learning is more about the process than reaching an ultimate answer. Of
course, answers are valued, but they are not the whole point of learning. In Indigenous Ways
of Knowing, as in PBL, the process of learning is more important than the final product of the
learning. For example, in a professional learning context such as a teacher preparation pro-
gram, the preservice teachers’ learning is more important than the final products they create
during this learning3 .
We can use the tools of Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Euro-western ways of knowing
together. While the Euro-western ways of knowing often starts with objectification and a re-
duction of the complex to the more simple for ease of examination, what if we started with the
observable and perhaps subjective, then move as needed to the particular or miniscule pieces
that Euro-western science has shown itself to be so good at displaying? The observable is a
complex space, rich with objects, subjects, and interactions. Rich Learning Tasks (Flewelling
& Higginson, 2001) are valued in pedagogical problem-solving strategies because of their
complexity. As a pedagogical tool, they emulate the opportunities for creativity, imagination,
communication, collaboration, and a ‘high ceiling low floor wide walls’ (Gadanidis, 2015)
kind of learning opportunity. Being more open to flexible thinking and creative solutions has
been seen in mathematics but possibly forgotten in standardized Euro-western-like curricula,
“the concept of mathematics found outside the Greco-European praxis was very different. The
aim was not to build an imposing edifice on a few self-evident axioms but to validate a result
by any suitable method” (Joseph, 2011, p. xiii).
The tools of Euro-western science do not need only to be used with a Euro-western mindset—
we could use the tools in a mindset of respect, relationship, and connection with the world in
which we live, and are learning from. For example, the Medicine Wheel can map out spaces
and methods for learning in Indigenous cultures (Yearington, 2010), and as a pedagogical
strategy it allows the learner to respond to the stimuli of the learning environment and shape
their learning goals to better meet their needs. A parallel exists with PBL, in its context-based
Problems of Practice. The PBL Problem of Practice emerges from the learners’ surrounding
environment and asks the learner to respond according to their environment.
There is an argument that achievement gaps and inequitable access to achieving educa-
tional standards can be naturally reduced (I hope possibly eliminated) with access to learning,
3
Specifically, teacher practice undergoes continual improvement, lessons and classroom tasks are continually
improved, and success with a teaching strategy requires implementation in a practical environment, such as a
classroom. Thus, preservice teachers have a ‘best guess’ of what will work, but they need to try it out in a
classroom to know if it will really work for them and their students. Their learning process and their ability to
hone life-long learning skills will be more of an asset in the preservice program than creating finished products.

Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Jamie S Pyper, pyperj@[Link]

Citation: Pyper, J.S. (2021). Problem-Based Learning as a professional learning model helped me with the
sudden demand of remote learning, and I believe is helping me offer students ownership and their own voice in
their learning. Academia Letters, Article 563. [Link]
4
seeing oneself in the learning, and seeing oneself as a learner of value, rather than conforming
to the explicit and sometimes hidden curriculum of standardised testing and systemic ‘school-
ing’ and educational structures of tracking or streaming, or the separation of each day into par-
ticular bits and pieces of disjointed learning according to an artificial division of subject areas.
“What if we measured students by how knowledgeable individuals are about their own envi-
ronments? What if we realized the best way to ensure an effective educational system is not
by standardizing our curriculum and tests but by standardizing the opportunities available to
all students?” (Kendi, 2020, p.103). PBL provides an opportunity for the student to co-create
a learning environment, even if that must be in a brick and concrete building of predictable
and regular size and shape classrooms. Even if “the classroom was a jail of other people’s
interests” (Ta-Neshi Coates, p. 48) it can now be experienced as a horizon of possibilities for
any learners’ interests.
Going into remote learning, PBL provided me and my students a collaborative environ-
ment in which small groups (now Breakout rooms) functioned because learners felt in control
of what was happening and had developed greater learning skills. In PBL, the teacher does
not abdicate the responsibility for working towards a societally acceptable standard of liter-
acy and education but can now be more of a participant with the learners and their learning
engagement—and this is what is exciting about being a teacher, and why I continue to want
to be in the classroom/Zoomroom with learners.

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Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Jamie S Pyper, pyperj@[Link]

Citation: Pyper, J.S. (2021). Problem-Based Learning as a professional learning model helped me with the
sudden demand of remote learning, and I believe is helping me offer students ownership and their own voice in
their learning. Academia Letters, Article 563. [Link]
5
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Academia Letters, April 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Jamie S Pyper, pyperj@[Link]

Citation: Pyper, J.S. (2021). Problem-Based Learning as a professional learning model helped me with the
sudden demand of remote learning, and I believe is helping me offer students ownership and their own voice in
their learning. Academia Letters, Article 563. [Link]
6