Abstract:

This article presents the findings of an action-research conducted in a third grade classroom at a public school in Puerto Rico in a course that integrates the disciplines of Language Arts, Sciences and Social Studies. This qualitative study explored to what extent Problem Based Learning (PBL), as a didactic strategy, encourages the development of critical literacy and citizen competencies. The gathered data techniques consisted of participant and non-participant observations, field notes, pictures and the materials developed by the students. Theoretically, this work is grounded on a social constructivism framework, particularly, the ideas of Paulo Freire, as well as, the concepts of citizen competencies and critical literacy as foundations for integral human development. The data analysis allowed for the conclusion that PBL promotes, along its different steps, the initial development of the attributes of critical literacy and citizen competencies of the third grade students. According to the findings, the attribute of personal and cultural resources, corresponding to critical literacy, was observed in all the steps of the PBL. Likewise, the most frequent attribute regarding citizen competencies was the capacity of inquiry.

Keywords: problem based learning; critical literacy; citizens competences; elementary education; social constructivism; Puerto Rico