"I need this document from my shared drive at school to work at home, what can I do?" "I need to print this picture and the printer is out of ink, what do I do?" "How do you add a picture to powerpoint?" "I have to use the computer today because I will be out of town all weekend for a basketball tournament. How can I get my homework done?" All recent questions asked by our students, some are easily resolved, some require some thinking outside the box. I think our students need lessons in problem solving. With teachers trying to teach curriculum needed in a particular grade, it is hard to convince them they need to add one more skill to their lists of things to teach.
The common core standards have been debated in the media across the country. "At the core of the standards is a reduced emphasis on memorization. Students now have to connect the dots and apply critical thinking. It's what experts call higher-order thinking. Teachers say it's preparing students for life after high school.
That has made classrooms much more of a hands-on proposition." (Common Core State Standards Focus On Critical Thinking Amid Political Debate AP | By PHILIP ELLIOTT) This addition to common core standards has opened up the need for a different approach in the classroom. Teachers are feeling overwhelmed in how to handle one more thing. However with the Gale Virtual Reference Library easily available, articles can be found to encourage a different approach to teaching which will teach problem solving skills in conjunction with curriculum.
By accessing Gale Virtual Reference Library an article is found, Instuctional Strategies from Encyclopedia of Education which gives an overview of various strategies including the positive results of problem based instruction. Another article is found also from the Encyclopedia of Education, Project Method With these two articles in hand a teacher can begin to formulate lesson plans to guide students to learn better problem solving skills while teaching their subject material. With Gale virtual Reference Library, educators need not feel isolated as information is easily found which aids in their classrooms.
As teachers and librarians become familiar with GVRL they can then point their students to these academic articles as well as many other articles on subjects ranging from the arts to history and science. Learning can begin even in the most remote part of the state.