I was very much against student led problem based learning when it was introduced in my eldest’s Yr 5 class as part of the middle school PYP of an IB school. Many of the other parents were too. We thought it was the stupidest idea.
Then, DS started learning everything by himself from an early age by surfing online (claims he did not learn anything new in class from Yr 1-6 which is not entirely true but pretty close) and he has continued to work independently in maths & physics in high school. The maths syllabus has just changed and his teachers haven’t fully familiarised themselves with the new material, so even though he is 15 and in Yr 10, he pretty much leads/teaches the Yr 12 class in maths extn 2 (the highest level of high school maths) so it does depend very much on the child.
Yr 12 extension classes are also held before the school’s official start time, so last year he attended about ten percent of the Maths extn 1 classes which start at 7.15 am, but still managed to score 98 in the HSC external exam which was the highest score for that subject in the school’s history.
So, my take on this is that student led learning probably doesn’t suit most school kids, but for those whom it suits, it’s a golden opportunity for them to just seize the baton and really run with the concept.
