The Scottish Diploma of Education: Project Learning or Problem-Based Learning?
On problem-solving skills through interdisciplinary learning
The Hayward Review of Qualifications and Assessment (March 2023) proposes to replace the existing SQA senior phase qualifications with a new qualification – the Scottish Diploma of Education (SDA). The Scottish Government’s Report of the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment (June 2023) has adopted these recommendations in principle. The model comprises three elements that have evolved through several iterations through the review process. Interdisciplinary learning (IDL) is a key element of the recommendations. The first two elements are: Programmes of Learning (previously Subject Studies and then Subject and Learning Programmes) and Personal Pathways. The third element of the SDA has had three recent iterations in which Project Learning was previously headed Learning in Context and then Learning in Context/Interdisciplinary Learning).
real world challenges
In the March 2023 version of the SDA, Learning in Context emphasised an “interdisciplinary project-based approach” where evidence is gathered “across knowledge, skills and competences in action” to tackle “real world challenges” and the development of “key skills that are widely accepted to be crucial to learners’ future success in society and the workplace” in the 21st century. Problem-solving and collaboration are rightly key elements of this aspiration. The Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Education Committee strongly endorsed this model and its aspirations in its March 2023 Advice Paper, emphasising the importance of learners developing problem-solving skills through interdisciplinary learning approaches that draw widely on and across subject knowledge. However, in the June 2023 Scottish Government Report of the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment “It’s Our Future” this third element of the qualifications model has become “Project Learning”.
Although problem-solving and interdisciplinary learning are together recognised as important elements of “project learning”, the priority now given to project learning seems misguided. Projects don’t necessarily correspond to problems. As Carl Gombrich (Co-founder and Director of Teaching and Learning at the London Interdisciplinary School) recognises “humans are fundamentally students of problems, not disciplines” - and by extension not of projects either (Gombrich, 2021). Even infants and toddlers are instinctive problem-solvers (Mary Dooe, 2015; Keen, 2015). Whether problem-solving skills are yet well-developed in and across the current school curriculum is questionable. Amongst related problem-solving skills and capacities with which we aspire to imbue young learners in the 21st century are creativity, research, resilience, collaboration, communication, teamwork and decision-making.
By contrast, Project Based Learning is “a teaching method that involves learning activities and assignments, projects or tasks in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging and complex question, problem or challenge” (pblworks.org). It is a pedagogical tool to tackle a problem or challenge involving (for example) learning activities, assessments, assignments, projects and tasks that enable and measure student learning. Doing a project is not the same as identifying and solving a problem but it may make an important contribution to that process. A return to the March 2023 model of Learning in Context/Interdisciplinary Learning would help to ensure that learning is ambitious and problem-driven, enabling a range of appropriate pedagogical methods to be brought to bear on tackling problems.
Why does this matter?
Why does this matter? Interdisciplinary learning and problem solving are natural partners in imbuing young people with the knowledge, skills and mindsets to confront and embrace the many new and emerging problems and challenges of 21st century life and work. Reflecting on our rapidly changing world, Fletcher (2022) outlines the sorts of skills, capacities and mindsets that have become necessary for living, working and becoming “globally agile” citizens in the 21st century. “Our 19th-century education system is broken and must be replaced by one that teaches young people to confront and engage with shared global challenges.” Employers are now more concerned to seek graduates with proven problem-solving skills amongst a much wider range of skills and capacities such as curiosity, creativity, collaboration (working in teams), communication, compassion (Gombrich, 2021). Fletcher quotes Andreas Schleicher (Director of Global Education at the OECD): “In the past, teaching content knowledge was the ultimate goal of education”, but now “we have to change what we test if we are to change the way we educate young people”. This may include the reform of PISA testing. In whatever way the SDA is developed, “implications for staffing capacity and staff training (CPD) must be considered carefully” (School Leaders Scotland).
References
Hayward, Louise. March 2023. “Independent Review of Qualifications & Assessment in Scotland Interim Report.”
Independent Review Group. June 2023. “It’s Our Future: Report of the Independent Review of Qualifications and Assessment.”
The Royal Society of Edinburgh. 2023. “Advice Paper on Professor Louise Hayward’s Review of Qualifications and Assessment.” Edinburgh.
Keen, Rachel. The Development of Problem Solving in Young Children: A Critical Cognitive Skill, Annual Review of Psychology 2011, 62:1-21
Loch Shiel image © 2023 Nick Hood