問題導向學習(PBL)在國小自然科教學之應用研究-以「降低熱島效應」為例

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the application of “problem-based learning” (PBL) to the units “Heat and Our Life” and “Sustainable Homes” from the sixth-grade textbook used in elementary school science education, and to assess its influence on students’ abilities of problem-solving and environmental action. The object of this study is a sixth-grade elementary school class in New Taipei City. The teaching covers eight weeks, which includes three lessons per week, for a total of 24 lessons. Prior to and after the course, the students were administered surveys of “the worksheet of vegetable-planting planning,” “the worksheet of the solution of vegetable planting,” “problem-solving ability,” and “environment action scale.” Descriptive statistics and one-way analysis of variance were adopted for the quantitative analysis to examine differences in the pre-test and post-test scores. Qualitative data was collected from teacher’s interviews with the students, vegetable logs, self-evaluation lists, and peer-evaluation lists. The results of the research are as follows: 1. After learning “reduce the effect of urban heat island” guided by PBL, students’ ability to plan for vegetable planting showed significant progress (p = .000 < .01). The scale of environmental action indicates that 76% of the students attained the goal, which shows that learning “reduce the effect of urban heat island” guided by PBL actually enhances the performance of the sixth-grade students in regard to environmental action. 2. Furthermore, post-test performance of the students for “the worksheet of the solution of planting vegetable” (p = .000 < .01) and “problem-solving ability” (p = .000 < .01) surveys showed an obvious improvement. This indicates that the learning indeed promotes students’ problem-solving ability. 3. After learning “reduce the effect of urban heat island” guided by PBL, each group presented its achievements at a briefing. More than 85% of the students were satisfied with the learning outcome; this indicates that the learning can be applied to energy saving and carbon reduction in everyday life. Finally, the findings of this study lead to certain recommendations: (1) Teachers should affirm students’ progress more often; (2) The PBL process takes a lot of time, and therefore is not appropriate for every unit of teaching. However, in some cases, the content can be integrated into PBL; (3) The teaching of environmental action should encourage students to learn through personal experiences; and (4) Elementary school teachers should be provided with opportunities for extensive study to strengthen their confidence and profession of self-progress.