Education Commons^™

Incorporating Problem Based Learning Into A Secondary International Baccalaureate Biology Curriculum, Katie Smith

Education and Human Development Master's Theses

As expressed in the 21^st century skills framework, the goal of education is to create lifelong learners who can contribute to society. To accomplish this task, students must be exposed to real world problems providing students the opportunity to retain knowledge for future acquisition and application. Problem based learning (PBL) is distinct from other learning philosophies and strategies because it centers content and skills on problems instead of providing a list of concepts and then trying to make them applicable to the real world (Jonassen & Hung, 2008).

Most PBL research and curriculums have been created at the college level ...

The Use Of Argumentation In Socio-Scientific Issues: Enhancing Evolutionary Biology Instruction, Heath R. Marchand

Education and Human Development Master's Theses

With the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), further emphasis in science education is being placed on preparing students to become more informed voters regarding social, ethical, economic and political topics that affect contemporary society. Parallel to this shift is a stronger emphasis on integrating evolutionary theory as a unifying concept in the biological sciences. Given that evolution is one of the aforementioned topics commonly discussed and debated about in social and political arenas, ensuring that instruction provides students from all backgrounds a comprehensive understanding of its principals is becoming increasingly important in contemporary science education. Chapter II ...