Problem-Based Learning Meets Case-Based Reasoning in the Middle-School Science Classroom: Putting Learning by Design(tm) Into Practice

Abstract: The modern education community agrees that deep and effective learning is best promoted by situating learning in authentic activity. Many in the education community have put in place constructivist classroom practices that put students into situations where they must make hypotheses, collect data, and determine which data to use in the process of solving a problem or participating in some kind of realistic analysis or investigation. Research in case-based reasoning (CBR), which provides a plausible model of learning from problem solving situations, makes suggestions about education that are consistent with these educational theories and methodologies and which can provide added concreteness and…