The ultimate goal of Phenomenon-Based Learning (PhenBL) is to help students develop skills necessary to solve real-world problems.

To provide meaning and context, PhenBL does away with passive strategies such as lecturing or reading about frequently abstract and difficult-to-relate-to concepts in favor of guiding students in active discoveries of the skills and knowledge required to solve real-world problems.

Phenomenon-Based Learning classroom

In a Phenomenon-Based Learning classroom, teachers look for real-world phenomena that represent the main ideas of the lesson or unit and use these phenomena as starting points lessons or units. Then, students interact with these phenomena to “solve” them - they investigate and find patterns, contrasts, causes, effects etc.

These “phenomena solutions” are achieved when students design their own ways to study and explain the whys and the hows of the phenomenon - they use provided resources (books, articles, the Internet etc.) and create products, such as visual or physical models, simulations, and experiments.

Teachers may choose to use these student-generated products as measures of student learning (performance assessments) instead of traditional tests.

Such a series of lessons is called a storyline and while storylines may vary depending on the topic or discipline, the idea that each part of the storyline should be driven by student questions and investigations makes it crucial for students to have a solid grasp on the phenomenon that starts each storyline. To this end, students must learn how to break down phenomena.

Breaking Down a Phenomenon

In my article Where and How to Begin with Phenomenon-Based Learning, I used a High School Earth Science phenomenon I named How Do Different Minerals Form? to help me create a plan for learning, but I posed this question to students: Each made of carbon; a diamond is forever, but graphite not so much. Why? The reason for showing images of diamond and graphite - two minerals all students should be familiar with and know some facts about - was to start the process of students connecting that while diamond and graphite are made of the same element carbon, they are different due to the conditions they formed in.

I realize that while investigating students could choose to focus on figuring out the processes and conditions related to graphite and diamond only so I might have to add extension lessons to help students learn and understand other ways in which minerals form. However, starting with this phenomenon is advantageous in two ways. For one, students can relate to it easily. Two, it gets the ball rolling on a major concept that temperature and pressure are key factors that affect mineral formation.

However, most students will most likely not know the specifics about diamonds and graphites and learning that they are both made of the same stuff should arise their curiosity and motivation to find out why. This might prompt them to grab their tech and start Googling, and it’s great if they want to do so, but I implore you to stop them, because you do not want superficial learning. You want in-depth, super kick-ass understanding and this requires strategy.

Observe and Ponder Chart is so oP y’all

I use the Observe and Ponder (OP) chart to help students break down a phenomenon. In small groups, they compile the two lists. First, they brainstorm and write down all of the the observations they have collected about the phenomenon. I always make the phenomenon image/video available to students in the LMS (learning management system ex. Google Classroom, Schoology etc.) our school uses, so they can review it as they complete the activity.

In the second column, students write down any questions that come to mind about the phenomenon and the observations they’ve made. These questions help direct student investigations.

The goal of the Observe and Ponder activity is to teach students a strategic way of looking at different phenomena and ultimately to help them become better at investigating and solving problems.

Taking it further: Looking at Phenomena as a class

At this point, you may allow students to start their investigations, or, if you feel they’d benefit from peer and teacher feedback, you may want to facilitate a class discussion during which students share their observations and questions they’ve generated. This provides an additional scaffold - especially useful at the beginning of the school year - that allows students to see if they are on track.

Creating a class OP chart allows you to compile and combine observations

SHD (Subtle Hint Dropping) is an additional tool you can use to aid the phenomenon breakdown process. It is extra helpful when you find glaring omissions in the Ponder column or when working with younger students who experience more difficulty in converting observations into questions to investigate. Basically, point to the specific observation in the class OP chart and ask students if anything else comes to mind that may be important to look into. You may also ask them to make an inference, or guess the reason for this observation.

And if all fails, do a think-aloud during which you tell them what you’re looking for but you don’t just give them the answer - you demonstrate your thinking process step by step that got you to it.

Why Your Phenomenon-Based Learning Future is Bright

As students participate in PhenBL activities throughout the school year and become more comfortable with Phenomenon-Based Learning and gain more confidence in their ability to deconstruct phenomena (aka becoming more OP at school and life), you can remove the scaffolds and let students guide themselves and collaborate with others.

Handing control over to the students will require that you “be in the space” with them so you can scrutinize and support their work. Just make sure you’re kind in your guidance, you have fun, and you occasionally strike up a random conversation, because they’ll appreciate the small brain breaks this provides and they’ll find out that you’re human after all. They will also enjoy having you around.

Play your cards right and you’ll become the OG who’s pretty OP. And that’s a dub and a wrap.

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