Project Based Learning

The purpose of founding any business is to solve a real-world problem. Education builds a person in order to gain the necessary knowledge and skills to solve such real-world problems either as employers or as employees who add value to the businesses. Projects, by definition, are temporary endeavors that result in a unique product, service or result. It has a definite start and end and terminates when the objectives are attained. Students are made to do projects from a very early age in schools. These are called “dessert projects” that are based on small concepts from a unit. Project based learning is different from “dessert projects”. In a school setting, project-based learning involves teachers assigning projects based on the curriculum wherein the aim of the teacher is to help students learn the important skills and knowledge, i.e., the projects assigned itself act as a medium for teaching. The learnings/takeaways from such projects are submitted in the form of presentations or reports. This, project-based learning, is carried out to prepare students for the business/corporate world. Such projects help students learn how real-world problems have to be approached.

Project-based learning is said to be student-centric, where the instructor is more of a guide/mentor/project manager rather than a teacher. The projects conducted are inter-disciplinary in nature that requires contents from varying fields or subjects. They result in solutions to problems obtained through rigorous investigation and research. Because of such characteristics of project-based learning, students develop the skill of analytical/critical thinking which is the skill on demand today and makes them career ready. It helps students learn the art of decision-making by keeping them engaged, providing periodic feedback, understanding the concepts on a deeper level, retaining the concepts learnt rather than just memorizing and applying the concepts on relevant, real-life situations. Many such benefits of project-based learning make it the most pertinent way of learning for today’s world that can guarantee positive results. To successfully implement project-based learning, schools can start with small projects with ideas obtained from the students and then move on to bigger projects.