The Problem Solving Approach

    Hey everyone, welcome back to one of my reflection blogs! During week 7 and 8, my cohort members and I were tasked with creating a lesson that incorporates one of the four problem solving approach methods. For my lesson, I chose to implement the forked road problem approach, where students have to decide either yes or no. I created my lesson plan around land conservation and utilization and posed the question of whether or not a commercial greenhouse should be built on a plot of land. Once students worked through a pros and cons chart of building the greenhouse, they were tasked with deciding if it would be a good idea to build on the land or not. Although I was unable to present my lesson to my cohort members, I still was able to review how teachers implement this method into the classroom and learned a lot from the experience. 

    The problem solving approach relates to what I know about learning because it enables students to solve a real world problem where they can see how important decisions impact the industry. When students can relate what they are learning to real issues and current topics surrounding the Ag industry, they are more likely to be motivated to learn and solve the problem in the classroom. The problem solving approach method relates to what I know about teaching through the ways that it can impact effective instruction. By implementing this approach into your lessons, you are teaching students skills related to critical thinking and decision making that will benefit them in their future endeavors. 

    This experience taught me the value in having to relate what you are teaching to careers and topics pertaining to the real world. I also learned that an important part to decision making comes from students being able to pull out all of the factors influencing the problem, so that they can evaluate and analyze them before coming to a final decision. A great method that I observed to accomplish this was using a mind map, where students can visualize all of the factors that are influencing the decision making process. In the future, I can apply all four of the problem solving approach methods into my lesson plans as an efficient way to assess my students' knowledge. I think this method is a great way to test student knowledge at the end of a unit or major topic as a summative assessment. Thank you for joining me on this experience and feel free to leave any comments below!