Problem-Based Learning: Our Brains Abhor Cliffhangers

Our brains don’t like unresolved issues, writes El Paso Schools IT director Tim Holt. “Hollywood figured out long ago that cliffhangers are sticky — that our brains remember unresolved issues longer than plotlines that just plod along.” In his latest post about the advantages of problem-based learning, Holt says PBL lessons should also keep students busy resolving the unresolved.

Dear Hollywood: School Doesn't Look Like This

Everything we hope and expect our classrooms to be — and our students to be doing — is nowhere to be found on episodic television or in the cinema. Look hard for any type of technology being used in the classrooms portrayed on television today. It’s pretty much not there. Teachers are still portrayed as sages on the stage, students still stuck in neat rows. It’s time to demand a change!