Guide to Project Based Learning

Editor's Notes

1. At the beginning of every project is a question/challenge/problem students need to solve. This problem should be complex and without any obvious answers. You can build the problem also around certain curriculum content students need to learn. PBL method can be used in every subject and is capable of capturing all the required curricula. E.g. history project – students needed to cover WWII during their term. So the teacher suggested project of interviewing the war veterans and creating set of articles about their experience. Project them creates a natural need to know. In order to design project or attempt to answer question, students need to know about the issue as much as possible. E.g. the history project them creates a need to know about the WWII in order to know what questions to ask and how to evaluate them afterwards. Teacher can also make a case that not knowing about the WWII while interviewing the war veterans might be highly disrespectful. Since the students are the ones designing the project from the scratch, it sparkles innovation. There are no certain guidelines how to do the project, they can explore any angle they choose. The role of the teacher is to help them if needed and mentor them through out the process. But the ideas are theirs. By completing the project students learn different skills without even realising it. We call this set of skills 21st century skills. See slides 8-11. PBL is student based. That means that students are in center of learning. They are free to choose method how to approach problems, choose roles within the project. It empowers students to connect with real world problems and make a difference. Feedback and critique is a an important part of the PBL. Even though planning and designing project is done by students, they still need some help in evaluating their efforts. That’s when feedback comes in. The last, but crucial part of the PBL is exhibition – that means presenting project. It can be done in various ways, during school assemblies, lessons, various science and trade fairs or special events.
2. 3 keys to successful PBL: Exhibition- creates strong commitment on the part of the student. If students know they will have to present their work publicly, it changes the nature of the project. They realise they would have to stand by their work at some point and answer some questions. That creates stronger incentives. Exhibition can also strengthen relations with community and show them what school is doing. Multiple drafts are especially helpful in evaluating the progress of the project, and also progress students make. Project timeline should always incorporate that. On the top of that, 1st draft never represents the best work. Critique plays crucial role in creating multiple drafts. It’s good and helpful when teacher offers their opinion, but it is even better when students are allowed to critique each other. Formal critique sessions give students the opportunity to learn from each other’s work and from each other’s feedback in a structured, safe context – this can include critique of the process (‘how I made this thing’) as well as product (‘the thing I made’). It will also help them to accept criticism in the future and see it as a helpful and positive sign for their work. During the critique session is important to know how to establish rules and lead it – critique is always suppose to be kind, specific, helpful.
3. PBL changes the roles in the classroom very significantly. It is very different not only from standard “talk and chalk” method, but also from different little projects students do during the classes. Small projects, such as writing essays, homework, assignments and so on, are part of every day life of the student. Their role is to create, improve and maybe even present this small projects in the classroom. Students engage in only part of the inquiry process. The teacher does the questioning, planning, and researching and presents all the material to the students. Then, students create something. The teacher and student work together to improve it, and then the student presents the project to the class or puts it in a glass case in the school. However, what happens when PBL takes place is that role of the student is suddenly much wider – they have to do questioning, planning and researching themselves. They are involved in the inquiry process form the very beginning.
4. In a project-based classroom, the teacher is a facilitator, not a lecturer. Instead of being the source of all knowledge, the teacher is a collaborator who helps students themselves gain the information and skills they need to succeed.