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Book Review: Learning through Real-World Problem Solving: The Power of Integrative Teaching

Nancy Nagel's book is a brave, interesting, but only partially rewarding exploration of an approach to teaching and learning, vitally important in the development of young children. The book makes a passionate case for the integration into the curriculum of opportunities for children to explore 'real problems', and to construct their own meanings and solutions to those problems set within a number of important social, economic and environmental contexts. It challenges notions that the curriculum experience of children should be dominated by the uncritical assimilation of subject-defined knowledge. Instead 'real-world problem solving' provides opportunities for children to apply that knowledge in situations which help develop broad and coherent understandings of issues relevant to the society in which they live and work. The book embarks upon a vigorous endorsement of some well-known and discussed themes including curriculum relevance, problem solving and social constructivism. This makes it a brave book because within the educational climate enjoyed in the UK at present, such views border on the heretical and have, at best, a marginal and controversial place within an officially endorsed orthodoxy, dominated by the whole class teaching of subject knowledge by specialist and semi-specialist teachers. At this time, it might be difficult to get a book like this published or read in the UK. The book is structured into seven chapters. The focus in Chapter 1 is upon explaining the nature of 'real-world problem solving'. It discusses the potential problems of curriculum fragmentation in a climate which sees the issues that 'real problems' deal with as an addition to an already over-burdened timetable in which important choices of curriculum content must be made. The answer, it is claimed, does not lie in replacing discipline-based knowledge on the curriculum, but in children using knowledge gained in these contexts as the basis from which to explore relevant contexts which have meaning to them. Importantly, what is not being suggested is project-based teaching or 'topic work'. This is seen as being different from problem solving, which depends upon the identification of specific questions as the focus for study. This is an important principle because it avoids a 'Cooks Tour' through a topic and provides children with a sense of purpose and direction. Chapter 2 takes these principles and attempts to justify the learning context for the application of subject-specific knowledge through problem solving. This is followed by a general, and sometimes superficial, exploration of some well-known ideas concerning experiential learning, group work, community links and how teachers might respond to 'an explosion in information'. Nearly half the book is given over to the four case studies described in Chapter 3. The book's interest, importance and strength lies in these case studies, not within the theoretical or analytical explanations and justifications of problem