XI. 5.
Working with Texts
Read and analyse the case study below, after that answer the questions. (You should work in pairs)
A case study about PBL done by a European primary school
‘A class of 10-year-olds was working on the problem ‘Do we have a sensible choice/use of packaging?’ The background for the class project was that some of the students found that recycling of packaging in their daily lives was not common. For instance, a group of the youngsters were very concerned that the plastic containers with the liquid used for windscreen washing, sold at service stations, were not recycled.
Before dealing with the specific problem, the teacher wanted to work with the packaging problem in general in order to improve their understanding of the issue. The students investigated the amount and the type of packaging in various local shops, they analysed the plastic industry, they made a role play to expose the conflict of interest in the use of packaging, and they constructed a questionnaire to reveal attitudes towards packaging.
On the basis of the knowledge they acquired and the questions that arose from the investigations they wrote to the Packaging Board to enquire about the labelling of packaging, to the town hall administration about waste sorting, and to various producers about the amount of packaging of selected goods.
Having identified different arguments, positions and factual matters related to packaging they turned to the specific problem and decided together with their teacher to write to the petrol company concerned. They received an answer saying that the company thought it was a good idea and that they would seriously consider making moves towards establishing a system on the basis of their enquiry.’ (Written by Soren Breiting at all, 2005. 28-29.
Questions:
- How did the pupils work on the environmental project and what actions did they take?
- How should the pupils learn during the project?
- What does the teaching/learning focus on?
- Why is action- based learning useful for pupils?