Elsa Cardenas

New Curriculum for New Times, A Guide to Student-Centered Problem Based Learning
by Glasgow, Neal A.

Yellow Hat
New Curriculum for New Times gives advantages and disadvantages of using student
centered learning and teacher centered styles. But it emphasizes that even student center
learning may seem like a big mess for those that try it for the first time the rewards that the
classroom and students will receive of feeling they are active participants and personally invest
and engage in facilitating their own learning (p. 35). The benefits to student centered approach
is that students can evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in learning to be more self
motivated.The benefits to PBL will work not only for todays assignments but will strengthen
students in the future in their cognitive processes to use more higher level functions such as
analysis, synthesis and evaluation (p. 39).This can be done if the teacher renders responsibility
to students and explains to parents that are not familiar with this method that the class is
student centered and what that looks like. Teachers would need to be less structured to allow
time for students to brainstorm to formulate and problem solve.
Black Hat
I really like that this book gives us realistic expectations and gives examples of advantages and
disadvantages of the weaknesses of PBL. It describes in the section of student centered
learning when this method begins it will look messy and somewhat hard to manage (p. 36) It
will also make some students, parents and faculty feel uneasy or uncomfortable because this
approach is not common and they use to teacher centered approaches. This transition can be
dificult because teachers can not trust that students will learn on their own and students have
been condition to be to needy that they need step by step demonstrations and are use to recall,
repetition and retention.In order to access or evaluate assignments that are student centered
different tools need to be used and it can take up to 6 months to acclimate this method.
The Red Hat
I think that everything mentioned in this book and what I have read in the class this method is
very beneficial for the student if projected and organized correctly. It just seems that there is a
lot of work on the teacher to total surrender the most safest and most common method which is
teacher centered. The reason why I say this is because as educators we are used to having to
give the students so much facts and background knowledge that we do not allow them time to
analyze and problem solve because we need to follow the curriculum and we can not be behind
or we will lose track not necessarily the students. It is easier to just tell the student to follow the
directions complete the assignment and get a good grade. I think PBL is a great method but
teachers need more professional training on this method on how to execute this method

properly so if can be a success with the students and in the classroom. I would like to read more
on PBL and use it in the classroom because this can help the students to real world applications
in the future. The book mentions a school called Center for Technology, Environment and
communication that adopted their own schedule and offered their own education experiences,
methodology and pedagogy (p.23) and found great success with PBL. The way they were able
to make this possibly was by seeking funding as grants and support in order to motivate
teachers and students.
This book is straightforward and gives you exactly what you are looking of when you look at the
index page. Every topic that you are looking for for PBL such as PBL approach, changing
teacher roles, cooperative and individual learning, classroom examples and managing PBL
provide that exact information and make it an easy read.
The White Hat
The information and facts that we know about PBL is the learning is open-ended where
students need to seek those question to find an answer to those unknown problems. This can
frustrate students because they want to know if the answers are right or wrong and want to be
sure that they are not missing a step. That is why as the book says there needs to be a journal
or log to be able to self assess and give feedback to students in the process of an assignment
to troubleshoot potential problems (p.147). The book also mentions that PBL can be used in the
teacher centered approach where the teacher explains the specific problem but the students are
the ones executing, designing and creating the problem solving solutions.in order for PBL to be
effective students need to be oriented and guided in this process to what the objectives are.
What i believe is missing from the book is standardized testing. Even though the books
mentions that different tools need to be used to access and evaluate and that by using PBL they
will be ready to answer questions on standardized test because of their preparation in problem
solving but it does not mention how to prepare them for the test like the STARR test in Texas or
common assessments.
The Green Hat
The way to determine to use PBL or not at this point is up to the teacher and how comfortable
they are with rendering some control to the students to be responsible for assignment and how
self motivated they will become to finish within an appropriate guideline. PBL is not really
pushed in many schools or districts because of lack of knowledge on the topic. School district
need to become more aware of PBL and begin to research how they can implement some of the
methods into their district but they need to invest into preparing teachers with workshops and
PD. As well with instructors that will go into the classrooms to direct and guide teachers how to
make it work for their classes but of course this involves a lot of money and time.

The Blue Hat

I believe that nothing is really being done in my district to inform teacher about the proper
procedures to use PBL. What we do have are Blooms that does get pushed by administers for
teacher to reach the higher levels of thinking. The books mentions that we have been condition
to use textbooks to give us the answers to solutions to problems. But we need to give the
students the freedom to research beyond the textbook and think of real world/authentic
solutions. Teachers also need to think about what types of resources to present and not just
narrow it to computer responses but bring in guest speakers and experts that can deepen the
students thinking and have them ask even more questions.