Well of course it does! Even Jesus taught using scenario
situations and there are centuries of data proving how well this worked for
everyone involved.

Last week I tried it out this ancient strategy in my
classroom. I was teaching a lesson on the 5 points of modern architecture. I announced
to my students that I had just purchased a small beachfront lot in Newport
Beach and that they had to design a home for me. As a client, I had very
specific requests for this building. The whole front of the house had to be open,
mostly glass so I would have unobstructed ocean views; it had to be elevated
from the ground to prevent water damage, and so on… What they didn’t know is
that hidden in my requirements, were the 5 points of modern architecture as
conceived by Swiss architect Le Corbusier. The variety of solutions to my problem
was very interesting. For instance, one of my requests was a roof garden. For
one of my students a roof garden meant a swimming pool on the roof surrounded
by plants; another student interpreted it as little green house with a
vegetable garden topped by a traditional gabled roof made out of glass.  I could already envision my wealthy neighbors
stopping by for some free heirloom tomatoes. When the time came for me to
present the material, it took less than 10 minutes of their class time. By
then, everyone was more than ready to understand the concept.

I have taught this lesson for many years but this is the
first time that I introduced it this way. It is possible that the idea of changing
my format was inspired by observing Phil Miller’s Economics class the week
before. Phil is dealing with a very quiet group of seniors this year who do not
participate much during group discussions. He gave them a scenario problem about
a high school senior who wanted to drop school in order to work full time so
that she could focus on making more money. Phil asked questions to lead a class
discussion. The day after, a student acted out the role of the high school
senior and students were encouraged to ask questions to her relating to whether
her decision was a sensible economic one. Many students participated. I was
struck by the maturity of the questions and how pointed they were, ranging from
“How much money are you making right now”, to the more poignant ones such as “How
would you describe your relationship with your parents”. I did not follow up
with the next class the next day but I could tell the activity had been
successful. Phil uses this tool very often in his classes. He says it
encourages problem solving and critical thinking. While doing research on this
technique, I found that it is used in many different fields like engineering,
math, business and others. It makes abstract information seem more real and
easy to grasp.

In the case of my students, I started to see some results
right away.  

I gave a simple quiz at the end of the week relating to the
lesson. I usually make these little quizzes multiple-choice. They are quick,
easy for me to grade, and not worth a lot of points. This time I made it a
scenario-based quiz instead.

I always try to help my all students do well on their
quizzes so I post a practice quiz and a study guide on Schoology. In spite of
this, some students don’t pass.  This
time they did not practice but the information was posted for them.

Here are my observations from comparing the results in both
quizzes:

—Students did equally as well or better in the second quiz
even though I skipped through the process of quiz practice and going through missed
answers.

— In the multiple-choice quiz, the students that are
receiving academic help fared worse; in the scenario quiz, the students that
missed one or two classes that week fared worse. 

Here are my conclusions from this experience.

–Students who have high executive mind skills are more
likely to check Schoology and review study guides, therefore my practice tests
are probably only helping students who don’t need that much help

–Real scenarios help all students but they are particularly helpful to students with learning issues.  The information is retained better.

–Scenario-based questions or real world problems solving
may help students who “do not test well” get better scores in their tests.

–Peer Observations are a very “economical” way to learn and
re-learn teaching practices that are useful in the classroom.

I hope this is helpful and inspiring to any of you. Do you use problem solving that include real life scenarios? Do you have any good links to Scenario-based teaching in High School? Please share.