Intersecting Networks Supporting Problem-Based Invention Education

Abstract

One educational approach aligned with problem-based learning (PBL) is invention education (IvE). Both PBL and IvE place an emphasis on resolving practical problems experienced by real people while engaging students in hands-on learning. In this interactional ethnographic study we examined the networks that supported a high school team and their teacher, as they worked to invent a solution to a real-world problem students identified in their community. Data sources included video and documentary data of the team’s work generated by a student-historian during an invention education project as well as Zoom-facilitated ethnographic conversational interviews conducted with the teacher and the student-historian over five months the following year. We uncovered local, local-national, and national supports that impacted the invention education process of the team. Through ecomap, discourse, and domain analyses we demonstrate how supports at multiple levels of the educational ecosystem create opportunities for students and teachers to engage in meaningful, real-world problem-based projects. We argue that varied people and organizations can contribute to innovative PBL and IvE, thus aiding the narrowing of diversity gaps in the fields of invention, engineering, STEM, and problem-based learning more generally.