Lesson Planning and Students` Motivation within Problem-oriented and Empirical learning. Finnish Experience

Organizing the most effective lesson for each child is a particularly relevant issue today, because children with different needs often study in the same class, and the teacher must provide each with an individual trajectory of learning and development.

How to combine subject learning with transversal competencies? Is it possible to interest every student, regardless of his aspirations and abilities? What to do when there is not enough time, and how to minimize its loss for the organization of group learning? The answers are in this article.

Principles of problem-oriented and empirical learning

Pedagogical theory often distinguishes between problem-oriented, empirical and research-based learning, but Finnish educators believe that all these methods belong to the family of child-oriented active methods. They involve active, exploratory, reflective and communicative learning designed to provide practical skills, support motivation, desire to learn and form the ability for self-assessment. Thus, these three methods are interconnected, and the boundaries between them are often unclear.

Problem-oriented learning is most often used for teaching natural sciences and programming, and is recommended to be conducted by uniting children into groups (3–5 participants). Such learning should be relevant to life and based on previously acquired knowledge. For example, how to measure accelerated motion, or how to bake cupcakes, or who could be today’s Socrates and make people think.

The problem-oriented learning is often combined with empirical learning to show how practical methods contribute to solving life problems. Active experimentation motivates to try more to gain the next level of experience and to conceptualize the skills one has learned.

Empirical learning is recommended to be used in scientific education for younger children, as well as for the study of artistic and aesthetic subjects (music, art, etc.).

Finnish experts recommend organizing problem-oriented and empirical learning for children, delimiting research stations in the classroom. This approach will make it possible to organize children’s work in small groups. In the future, children can share the results of experiments with classmates and thus learn not only from the teacher, but also from each other. Instead, the teacher directs the thinking and conclusions of each group in the desired direction.

How to prepare a lesson that engages all students

The teacher, even if he has considerable experience in the school, is recommended to draw up a detailed plan of the lesson, indicating the general theme and the objectives he/she aims to achieve, the planned methods, exercises and materials to be used. Such thorough preparation significantly saves time for organizational moments during the lesson and helps to keep children’s attention.

In addition, a detailed synopsis will help the teacher involve all students in active work, including children with special educational needs.

Finnish experts advise to prepare a plan of the lesson in the form of a table, where you write down in detail:

• timing for each activity;
• actions of the teacher (for example, introduction, explanation of the goals and purpose of the lesson, division into groups, etc.);
• the task of the teacher in each activity (getting acquainted – to establish trust with children, a comfortable atmosphere at the lesson, division into groups – to support active learning and learning with the help of peers); 
• teacher’s tools for each activity (getting acquainted – perform the «touch me» exercise, dividing into groups – hand out colored paper-markers of the group);
• a list of additional materials for each activity (colored paper, markers, etc.);
• assessment and differentiation – a method of assessing the progress of each student as well as methods that can be applied if not all children are ready to complete the task together (for example, when a child cannot write, ask him to draw an answer).

Finnish teachers are sure that every child has the right to equal opportunities in education. This means that there are children who need more support, which is determined by their level of development and needs. The idea is to provide such help to the child as early as possible. To implement this, the teacher must know the strengths and needs of each student, which, in fact, is the basis on which an individual learning trajectory is built.

For example, at a literary reading lesson in primary school, a teacher can use a differentiated approach where students who already have reading skills, read aloud the printed text to those who have just learned letters. Other children can tell the story based on the pictures or follow others reading. This is how children learn from each other, and efficiency increases.

Another example when at a science lesson, the teacher can hand out cards with pictures of animals and birds, which children group together according to individual characteristics on the board during the lesson, following the teacher’s explanation or discussing new knowledge. Each student is involved and has the opportunity to express himself (if not with words, then with action – for example, attach his picture in the right place).

The teacher is recommended to build lessons on learning a new concept as follows:

1. General familiarization of children with the concept as well as its application in various contexts.

2. Identification of children’s existing knowledge (through questions or activities) and their development in the learning process.

3. Collaborative learning based on dialogue (discussion of the concept in class or groups).

4. Setting learning goals (the teacher does this together with students).

5. Explaining the relationships of the new concept with the knowledge that students already have (through teaching).

6. Emphasis on metacognitive skills (thus, students begin to understand why they are learning a concept, where they will need this knowledge, and what they can do with it further, including how to deepen it).

According to Finnish teachers, the result of the approach is the formation of students’ metacognitive skills. Thus, they become aware of their actions during learning, they are interested in making choices, they can evaluate individual learning and memorization strategies, and regulate their emotions and behavior, attention and concentration.

Student motivation as a key to the success of the educational process

Finns believe that learning should evoke positive emotions and experiences. As a result, the child becomes an active individual who can and wants to set new goals for himself. Therefore, it is extremely important for a teacher to be able to motivate each student.

It is worth remembering that motivation is not the awakening of a situational interest in learning. It should be long-term and stable and needs constant support, because many factors around the child (inconsistency of student’s attitudes with the goals of the curriculum, unpleasant experiences, low self-esteem, family, cultural and social values of the environment, teaching style, etc.) can negatively affect his/her motivation to study .

Finnish experts consider thoughts, emotions (including negative ones) and suggestions of the students themselves to be the starting point of the teacher’s work on student motivation. Children need to have enough time for learning to start taking responsibility and regulating their behavior. At the stage of formation of motivation, teachers are recommended to explain in detail to their students:

• activity goals in the lesson;
• clear instructions for performing tasks;
• expectations of the teacher from the class;
• consequences of failure to complete tasks;
• working conditions in the classroom (for example, group project work).

A clear structure of learning makes it consistent, understandable and predictable for students. Children, especially in primary school, who are not yet ready for self-regulation, need a strong structure at the beginning of their educational progress. With improved self-regulation skills, they are ready to take on more responsibility.

However, it is worth bearing in mind that if the structure has a positive effect, total control by an adult will mostly demotivate. Control is, in fact, teaching through the prism of the teacher’s point of view without taking into account the needs and capabilities of students. The educational process here is limited to coercion, not motivation.

So, the motivational educational process consists of:

• clear goals and subgoals;
• student support by the teacher;
• continuous, realistic and constructive feedback;
• suggestions for changing activities during the lesson;
• structured schedule;
• defined duration of work periods and breaks;
• distribution of roles for performing group tasks;
• defined remuneration.

Thus, children begin to feel and understand that the topic being taught is important for them, and activity at lessons contributes to the accumulation and development of skills and general competence, and interest in learning grows. As a result, the child’s autonomous internal motivation is gradually formed and his/her personality is strengthened.

This material was prepared for the Learning Together project and published on the NUS portal in 2022 based on the results of a webinar on methodologies for preparing for the lesson and motivating students, in particular primary school students, organized by the Finnish Learning Together project + the EU project together with the Reform Support Team.

This document was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.