Students engage in problem solving

Students share their ideas about supplies they should send to help the main character of the movie “The Martian” after watching it in class at Ewha Womans University High School in Seoul, May 6. / Courtesy of Ewha Womans University High School

Project-based learning helps develop creativity, teamwork, critical thinking

By Chung Hyun-chae

Kim Min-seok, a 17-year-old sophomore at Ewha Womans University High School in Seoul, is playing an active role in his English class by trying to solve real-life challenges and problems.

“I like the liberal and invigorating atmosphere in which we can talk and work together with our classmates to carry out some problem-solving tasks,” Kim told The Korea Times.

“I can see other students working very hard, which also motivates me to actively take part in projects,” he added.

Kim is actually not an overachiever on tests.

Ko Eun-hye, an English teacher at the school, cited Kim’s case as an inspiring example of project-based learning (PBL), a student-centered pedagogy that allows students to gain opportunities to engage in real-world problem solving.

“If it hadn’t been for the PBL class, students like Kim, who was not interested in English and was behind the other students, wouldn’t have tried to write an English essay,” Ko said.

PBL is an innovative education method through which students find and solve problems by searching for information or applying their knowledge to real life.

In her class, Ko showed her students the sci-fi movie “The Martian,” and encouraged them to mull over which items they should provide for the main character who was left behind on Mars.

“I also gave them an assignment to write letters to NASA, assuming that they were the main character,” Ko said.

For this, she taught students how to write an English letter.

“I think I have improved my English by asking many questions of my classmates and also getting help from them,” Kim said. “If a teacher only lectures, I have to pluck up the courage and ask them when I have a question.”

His classmate, Jun In-ju, 17, agreed with Kim, saying, “Although my English is not perfect, I can help my classmates develop their ideas or explain things.”

The teacher stressed that the goal of the PBL class is to develop her students’ abilities that are required to become citizens of a 21st-century society.

“The abilities I especially want for them to develop are creativity, teamwork, communication skills and critical thinking,” Ko said.

Lee Eun-sang, a social studies teacher at Changdeok Girls’ Middle School in central Seoul, has also been trying to encourage his students to apply what they have learned in class to their real life through a project.

“Last year, when I taught about globalization in a social studies class, I gave an assignment to the students to find social problems related to fair trade,” Lee said.

He noted that he narrowed the topic to fair trade to help students easily find problems surrounding them.

“One team that raised the problem of coffee houses even tried to run a cafe by themselves to find out what fair trade is,” Lee said.

He said he plans to have his students to learn more about the lives of pregnant women and make policy recommendations for them. On this assignment, Lee is cooperating with a health teacher.

Asked about his goal, Lee said he wants his students to grow up as upright citizens.

“I believe that they could practice how to make society better by finding solutions to problems,” Lee said.

Lim Kyu-yun, an English teacher at the school, is also running a PBL class.

She naturally initiated the PBL program in 2013 when her students wondered what Chinatown looks like during an English lesson about culture.

“I told them to go out and inquire about the area if they really wanted to, and they really did,” Lim said. “I was impressed that the students, including those who had not paid attention in class, enjoyed the project.”

This year, she gave a similar task to her students to go out on the street and interview foreigners to figure out cultural differences between Korea and other countries.

“I also felt the need to help them realize why they should learn English and what to say in English,” Lim said. “They aren’t learning English to use it in the classroom but in real life, for example at work or while traveling.”

However, not all students are completely satisfied with the new way of learning.

“Frankly speaking, I’m more comfortable studying with an English textbook,” said Lee Ji-ni, 13, a freshman of Changdeok Girls’ Middle School. “But one thing that is obvious is that the class is not boring and I can understand what I am learning easily.”

Lim has been offering her students the “free learning semester,” an initiative pushed by the Ministry of Education to enable middle school students to spend one semester without tests so they can explore future career paths. It was fully implemented in all middle schools across the nation this year.

Lim said that the free learning semester program has given some leeway for schools to try new teaching methods, with both teachers and students escaping the pressures of testing.