Abstract:

Nowadays secondary school is quite different from the one we used to have in XX or the beginning XXI centuries. It’s subjected to the changed conditions of living, learning and immediate participants of the educational process. Thus, earlier the teacher was only the transmitter of the information that students should learn and acquire. But now almost any student has an access to the loads of information via the Internet, on-line libraries and other virtual resources and a teacher can only direct students to the appropriate resources and highlight the most important and necessary information. And here the problem-based learning can help.

To begin with, we should have in mind that secondary school students are teenagers, whose age peculiarities influence their behaviour. All these in combination with the lack of interests in learning and bad behavior can be rather challenging for teaching. Teenagers want to show their importance and significance for their classmates and at the same time try to find the way for self-realization. And what can be better than solving the problem, given by the teacher? The problem, suggested by the students! Let’s consider the typical steps of the problem-based education:
1) problem situation;
2) problem statement;
3) hypothesizing;
4) confirmation or contradiction of the hypothesis;
5) the examination of the decision;
6) the decision formulation;
7) self analysis.

Problem-based learning have the following advantages: it helps students to think logically and creatively; it makes the learning material more accessible; when students make efforts to learn the information, they will remember it longer; problem-based learning is more emotional, and emotionally-coloured information will be also more difficult to forget. Besides, problem-based learning can be rather flexible in time: from several hours up to several weeks, depending on the teacher’s objectives and students’ abilities.

But there are some moments that a teacher should pay attention to:
1) the problem should be clear and interesting for the students;
2) the students should have enough knowledge and experience to solve the problem;
3) the problem should arise naturally (the teacher should lead the students to the situation where the necessary problem can be found).

Moreover the teacher himself must clearly see what should be at the end of this problem situation and be ready to direct them softly to the right decision and at the same time he should be ready to accept the unexpected variant, if it’s fundamentally proved (Because sometimes, even teachers can be surprised by teenagers).

So, problem-based learning is one of the active methods of teaching, involving teenagers in living communication and creative thinking. It gives them the opportunity for self-realization and collaboration and developing their learning and collaborating abilities.

Keywords:

Secondary school, problem-based learning.