Project Based Learning

Project Based Learning is the process of learning through the design, development, and completion of projects.

It is a method of structuring curriculum around projects to promote learning of prioritized learning content or we can say that project based learning is the process of learning through projects. It depends on background knowledge, learner choice, technology tools, support from others, and dozens of other factors that result in a process of learning that produces very different results and ‘projects’.

Project Based Learning is not completing projects. It's goal is learning and the projects help facilitate that learning. So. we can say that, projects act as a vehicle. Students explore the driving question by participating in authentic, situated inquiry – processes of problem-solving that are central to expert performance in the discipline. As students explore the driving question, they learn and apply important ideas in the discipline.

“As the name implies, it is simply learning through projects. What is being learned and how that learning is being measured isn’t strictly dictated by the project and any products or artifacts within that project. Rather, the reverse should be true: the desired learning objectives should help dictate the products and artifacts within the project.

Benefits:->

->Requires critical thinking (e.g., design, evaluation, analysis, judgment, prioritizing, etc.). This is in contrast to other forms of learning that hope to ‘promote’ critical thinking but can be accomplished without it.

->Driven by inquiry

->Combines knowledge and competencies/skills

->Illuminates learning as iterative and recursive (as opposed to learn–>study–>assess–>move on)

->Flexible

->Authentic

->Student-Centered

->Unifies other disparate skills

->Easy to align with standards

Challenges->

PBL requires you to coach more and instruct less, to embrace interdisciplinary learning instead of remaining locked in single-subject silos, and to be more comfortable with uncertainty and discovery during the learning process. You can overcome these PBL challenges. Good problems or ideas can come from your students, parents, or community members. Instead of lectures and book learning, teachers can think through the steps required to solve a problem and use those steps as project-learning activities. Instead of planning a massive project, the learning process can be made more manageable by chunking the project into smaller parts, with frequent checkpoints built into the timeline.

Examples->

In one science-based project, students begin with a visit to a zoo, learning about animal habitats and forming opinions on which habitats best suit a selected animal.18 For this example, the project component included teams of students collaborating to develop a research-supported habitat plan that they would then present to professional and student zoologists.