Week 1: Introduction to Project-Based Learning

What do playing with worms, designing schools, and monitoring monarch migration have in common? It turns out that they're all excellent ways to help students learn through project-based learning. Each of these projects involve students in an experience that allows them to construct knowledge about a topic, apply classroom learning to a real-world challenge, and explore facets of the topic that spark their curiosity. Simply put, these projects give students an opportunity to make their education meaningful to them, and in the process, they are encoding their learning in a way that will keep that knowledge fresh and relevant for a long time to come.

With each of these projects, the teachers who developed them were seeking ways to make learning more meaningful for students. Although all three projects were targeted at audiences of different ages, they maintained some important similarities:

1. Each project involved real-world application of knowledge,
2. Projects were relevant to students and student interests,
3. The projects evolved over time to their current state; most started out with a single activity and expanded outward as the process became more familiar,
4. Thoughtful planning was a hallmark of all the projects; teachers knew what they wanted students to learn, and they worked to make sure student experiences in the project would ensure that students walked away with the desired knowledge, and
5. Teachers were willing to be flexible in order to meet the needs of the students.

The commonalities among the projects indicate that a teacher who wishes to successfully implement project-based learning, regardless of the topic or content area, should be willing to:

1. Find ways to connect subject-area content to real-world application, or look for connections between curricular areas and places where they come together in the real world,
2. Consider the interests of the students in order to make the project meaningful to them,
3. Build from successes and failures alike, but keep going with the understanding that the project will probably take on a life of its own,
4. Spend significant amounts of time planning the project to make sure it will provide students the opportunity to gain the depth of knowledge the project was designed to elicit, and
5. Be flexible, be wrong, be creative, and listen to student feedback.

Project-based learning puts students in the driver's seat, and it puts teachers in the role of planners and facilitators. While it is uncomfortable for both teachers and students who are accustomed to the "sage on the stage" model of teaching and learning, there is a growing body of evidence to support the idea that student-directed learning is the most meaningful form of learning (see this article for a discussion of the topic); project-based learning is just one form of student-centered learning. It is imperative for teachers who want to provide students with engaging, meaningful education to understand that the role of the classroom teacher is changing. It is no longer good enough to to simply be an expert in the field and impart knowledge to the next generation; we have to remember how we have collected knowledge over the years, and constructed meaning for ourselves, and then find ways to help our students duplicate the process for themselves in an environment that is designed to guide them to the knowledge we want them to have.

When students have worked together and generated questions, explored a topic, found answers, generated further questions, solved problems, and shared their knowledge, they have had an educational experience that will remain with them for a long time. These students were challenged, they were successful, and they had an opportunity to explore how learning works in the real world: it's no longer learn, then do, it's learn by doing. Students understand the content because they have constructed the knowledge themselves in a way that is meaningful to them. How can students be anything but engaged when challenged with a problem that is relevant to them? And how much more meaningful is it for a student to be able to say that they worked on a team to research a topic and solve a real problem, rather than to say they got an A on a test?

The face of education is changing, and project-based learning is one of its many new looks.

For further thoughts on the importance of changing education, check out these videos from Alan November and Sir Ken Robinson.

Sources:

Armstrong, S. (February 11, 2002). Geometry students angle into architecture through project learning. Edutopia.      Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/geometry-real-world-students-architects

Curtis, D. (June 6, 2002). March of the monarchs: students follow the butterflies' migration. Edutopia. Retrieved       from http://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs

Curtis, D. (October 1, 2001). More fun that a barrel of... worms?! Edutopia. Retrieved      from http://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms

November, A. (March 5, 2011). Alan November: Who owns the learning? [Video file]. Retrieved from                         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebJHzpEy4bE

Robinson, K. (2006, February). Ken Robinson: How Schools Kill Creativity[Video file]. Retrieved                               from http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

Schwartz, K. (February 21, 2013). Alan November: how teachers and tech can let students take control. KQED: 
     MindShift. Retrieved from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/02/alan-november-how-teachers-and-tech-can-      let-students-take-control/