Paper Title
Prospective Teacher Engagement: An Innovative Problem-Based Learning Model

Abstract
Reforms to professional teacher education programs have been, in large part, in response to the increasing complexity related to teachers’ professional roles and responsibilities across both pedagogy practice. Moreover, such reforms have meant to assist prospective teachers with bridging the gap between course-based theory learning and the practical realities of actual classrooms in public schools. In this way, professional teacher education programs can facilitate program-embedded opportunities to consider critically the application of theory to practice. Problem-based learning (PBL) models, therefore, are well-situated to both nurture prospective teachers’ reflective capacities, and enhance their knowledge of the realities of teaching and learning in specific problem-inquiry contexts. PBL requires prospective teachers to consider, acquire, and reflect upon knowledge and theory in specific school-based applications. The real-world problems related to teaching and learning are the core pedagogical opportunities in teacher education PBL models as they promote prospective teachers’ knowledge acquisition and self-reflection of potentially previously unexamined biases and assumptions; additionally, PBL models require participants to work cohesively as a team by analyzing and evaluating the context-specific problem. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to first discuss the design and implementation of a unique hybrid PBL model used in a concurrent teacher education course in a university-based professional teacher education program in Ontario, Canada. Both past and current course designs are shared, as are the descriptions of the construction of cases and the schedule of prospective teacher reflections. Second, the paper considers both the successes and challenges of the hybrid PBL model for prospective teachers’ sense of engagement. Specifically, it discusses prospective teachers’ appreciation of the complexities related to the profession, the sense of ownership they felt during the knowledge-acquisition process, and their heightened awareness of the applicability of research-based data and findings to the problem inquiries. The analysis will also include the challenges of implementing this PBL model as they relate to an abbreviated course duration, a perceived lack of commitment on the part of some group members, and the varying levels of group members’ willingness to elaborate on their reflections. Keywords - Problem-Based Learning, Teacher Education, Prospective Teacher Reflection