A Problem-Based Learning scenario that can be used in science teacher education

The fundamental duty of teacher education is to prepare teachers newly starting out in their careers for the classroom environment and to equip them with the basic skills they will need in their professions (Wilson & Cameron, 1996). Graduates of teacher training programs need to have the type of personality, skills and attitudes that will enable them to cope with the daily conflicts in the classroom (Goodnough, 2005).

Traditionally, teacher training has generally been focused on presenting pre-service teachers with a bulk of theoretical knowledge that will be of use to them in their teaching practices (Edwards & Hammer, 2006). Many of the courses in teacher training curriculums teach student-centered activities (e.g., cooperative learning, group projects, etc.) but no relationship is drawn between the courses that are offered in separate clusters of knowledge. For this reason, teachers starting out in their careers are unable to associate their own personal experience with the scientific education they receive at the university. Teachers may benefit from the synergy created from drawing associations between courses, and concepts may be thus made more meaningful (Şahin, 2007).

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a tool that provides teacher educators with the opportunity to have their students encounter situations that they may be confronted with in their careers later on. The PBL method, which was first used with medical students to enrich them with the opportunity to practice what they learned in "real life" situations instead of being confined to course content, has recently been shown by researchers working in education to have benefits for teacher training.

Teacher training is an educational field that is particularly suited to the objectives and methods of the science of education, which constructs the framework of problem-based learning. This field is rapidly shifting toward educating newly graduated pre-service teachers in accessing the information they will need in their own learning and decision-making processes, evaluating this information and developing their analytical thinking capabilities (Edwards & Hammer, 2004). Some universities abroad have foreseen that the problem-based learning alternative approach has the potential to boost their students' success when they enter the real environment of the classroom and have thus restructured their programs to include this model.

In a review of the literature, it can be seen that the number of studies and the research on the use of problem-based learning in teacher training is much less than in other fields, that not enough attention has been paid to programs and teaching applications, that only a few universities abroad (British Columbia University in Canada; Stanford University, Mississippi State University, Delaware University in the U.S.; Monash University, August State University in Australia) have structured their teacher training programs in line with this model and that pilot studies and projects on PBL have been undertaken at some universities (University of Wisconsin-Madison in the U.S.; Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway; Wollongong University in Australia, New Brunswick University in Canada; Dokuz Eylul University in Turkey).

The PBL Process

PBL may take on many shapes and forms but is based on the fundamental treatise that "learning is a process through which the student actively constructs and applies knowledge" (Gijselaers, 1996). Learning is student-centered and there is less teacher dominance in this methodology than in the traditional approach. Learning is an active process and students take on more responsibility to learn compared to traditional methods of learning. Learning through independent work and group work are two important characteristics of PBL. Learning takes place in a process whereby students work together in groups of 7-8 to solve problems taken from real life (Şahin, 2007).

The characteristics of the problems used in PBL are of special importance. PBL methodology takes care to use open-ended problems that reflect typical issues in a particular field, serve the purposes of learning, are conducive to having the students form a synthesis of what they have learned and use this knowledge, essentially leading them on the road to thinking.

The conditions causing the problem and a clear definition of the problem are provided. The problems are generally presented in the form of scenarios in which events related to the problem are narrated. The scenario is based on real events or on narratives that have been likened to real-life situations. The scenarios may comprise tiny stories or dialogues that transpire between a few people (Açıkgöz, 2002). The students define the problem, produce hypotheses for the solution, put forth their knowledge and discuss what they need to know. They conduct research from outside sources (faculty members that have made presentations, scientific consultancy sessions, the library, the Internet) and bring what they have learned to the attention of their friends at the next group session (Mierson & Freiert, 2004).

This article introduces a problem-based learning application prepared within the scope of the project funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (in Turkish: Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu, TÜBİTAK) and encompasses the implementation of a PBL scenario exploring heat, temperature and expansion, presented to a group of science and technology teachers. This PBL scenario was used in the project entitled "Science Teachers in Training for Izmir Active Learning Activities I" that was held on September 1-7, 2014 in İzmir, Turkey within the scope of the TÜBİTAK Call for 4005 Science and Community Innovative Educational Practices. The goal of the TÜBİTAK 4005 project is to provide teachers with knowledge about innovative methods and techniques, using interactive teaching for the purpose of promoting positive attitudes toward science among students and the community. The implementation of the project was designed to be in line with the content of the participating teachers' 5th and 6th grade Science classes. Seventeen different activities were presented and in all of them, approaches that would foster active learning (such as case-based learning, learning stations, creative drama, the conceptual change approach) were applied. The twelve activities comprised working in small groups (8 groups of 5 individuals each). The PBL implementation described in this article is only one of the 17 different types of activities mentioned above and has been presented here in detail. At the same time, the article has also presented the researcher's observations and the opinions of some of the participating teachers regarding the process of the PBL application. The sub-problems of the research are as follows:

What were the observations of the researcher over the time the instructive application was carried out?
What were the thoughts of the participating teachers about the PBL application?