Project-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered pedagogy that involves a dynamic classroom approach in which it is believed that students acquire a deeper knowledge through active exploration of real-world challenges and problems.[1] Students learn about a subject by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to a complex question, challenge, or problem.[2] It is a style of active learning and inquiry-based learning. PBL contrasts with paper-based, rote memorization, or teacher-led instruction that simply presents established facts or portrays a smooth path to knowledge by instead posing questions, problems or scenarios.Thomas Markham (2011) describes project-based learning (PBL) thus: "PBL integrates knowing and doing. Students learn knowledge and elements of the core curriculum, but also apply what they know to solve authentic problems and produce results that matter. PBL students take advantage of digital tools to produce high quality, collaborative products. PBL refocuses education on the student, not the curriculum—a shift mandated by the global world, which rewards intangible assets such as drive, passion, creativity, empathy, and resiliency. These cannot be taught out of a textbook, but must be activated through experience."[3] James G. Greeno (2006) has associated project-based learning with the "situated learning" perspective[4] and with the constructivist theories of Jean Piaget. Blumenfeld et al. elaborate on the processes of PBL: "Project-based learning is a comprehensive perspective focused on teaching by engaging students in investigation. Within this framework, students pursue solutions to nontrivial problems by asking and refining questions, debating ideas, making predictions, designing plans and/or experiments, collecting and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, communicating their ideas and findings to others, asking new questions, and creating artifacts."[5](Blumenfeld, et al., 1991) The basis of PBL lies in the authenticity or real-life application of the research. Students working as a team are given a "driving question" to respond to or answer, then directed to create an artifact (or artifacts) to present their gained knowledge. Artifacts may include a variety of media such as writings, art, drawings, three-dimensional representations, videos, photography, or technology-based presentations.
Proponents of project-based learning cite numerous benefits to the implementation of its strategies in the classroom – including a greater depth of understanding of concepts, broader knowledge base, improved communication and interpersonal/social skills, enhanced leadership skills, increased creativity, and improved writing skills. Another definition of project-based learning includes a type of instruction, where students work together to solve real-world problems in their schools and communities. Successful problem-solving often requires students to draw on lessons from several disciplines and apply them in a very practic
John Dewey initially promoted the idea of "learning by doing". In My Pedagogical Creed (1897) Dewey enumerated his beliefs regarding education: "The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these.......I believe, therefore, in the so-called expressive or constructive activities as the centre of correlation."[7](Dewey, 1897) Educational research has advanced this idea of teaching and learning into a methodology known as "project-based learning". Blumenfeld & Krajcik (2006)[8] cite studies by Marx et al., 2004, Rivet & Krajcki, 2004 and William & Linn, 2003 state that "research has demonstrated that students in project-based learning classrooms get higher scores than students in traditional classroom".
John Dewey in 1902
In Peer Evaluation in Blended Team Project-Based Learning: What Do Students Find Important?, Hye-Jung & Cheolil (2012) describe "social loafing" as a negative aspect of collaborative learning. Social loafing may include insufficient performances by some team members as well as a lowering of expected standards of performance by the group as a whole to maintain congeniality amongst members. These authors said that because teachers tend to grade the finished product only, the social dynamics of the assignment may escape the teacher's notice.
al way. The promise of seeing a very real impact becomes the motivation for learning.
Examples
Although projects are the primary vehicle for instruction in project-based learning, there are no commonly shared criteria for what constitutes an acceptable project. Projects vary greatly in the depth of the questions explored, the clarity of the learning goals, the content and structure of the activity, and guidance from the teacher. The role of projects in the overall curriculum is also open to interpretation. Projects can guide the entire curriculum (more common in charter or other alternative schools) or simply consist of a few hands-on activities. They might be multidisciplinary (more likely in elementary schools) or single-subject (commonly science and math). Some projects involve the whole class, while others are done in small groups or individually.
When PBL is used with 21st century tools/skills, students are expected to use technology in meaningful ways to help them investigate, collaborate, analyze, synthesize and present their learning. The term IPBL (Interdisciplinary PBL) has also been used to reflect a pedagogy where an emphasis on technology and/or an interdisciplinary approach has been included.
An example of a school that utilizes a project-based learning curriculum is Think Global School. In each country (THINK Global School) visits, students select an interdisciplinary, project-based learning module designed to help them answer key questions about the world around them. These projects combine elements of global studies, the sciences, and literature, among other courses. Projects from past years have included recreating Homer's The Odyssey by sailing across Greece and exploring the locations and concepts central to the epic poem, and while in Kerala, India, students participated in a project-based learning module centered around blending their learning and travels into a mock business venture. The interdisciplinary project was designed to enable students to engage in the key areas of problem solving, decision making and communication — all framed by the demanding parameters of a "Shark Tank", or "Dragon's Den" style competition.
Another example of applied PBL is Muscatine High School, located in Muscatine, Iowa. The school started the G2 (Global Generation Exponential Learning) which consists of middle and high school "Schools within Schools" that deliver the four core subject areas. At the high school level, activities may include making water purification systems, investigating service learning, or creating new bus routes. At the middle school level, activities may include researching trash statistics, documenting local history through interviews, or writing essays about a community scavenger hunt. Classes are designed to help diverse students become college and career ready after high school.
In 2009, The Illinois Consortium for 21st Century Schools lead by Deeper Learning author Jim Bellanca, initiated a 5 year deeper learning research project to identify the best practices and conditions among existing PBL models. In 6 pilot schools with students from the low performing to the highest performing, they piloted their findings. The goal was to test if all school/all day public schools could be transformed by PBL as initiated in schools such as Manor New Tech, This would test if traditional schools with established faculty could make such this deep shift.
As a result of the all school adoption of PBL in collaborative school wide cultures, several pilot schools earned accolades as P21 Exemplar schools (http://www.p21exemplars/Franklin) with raised achievement results and obvious evidence of teacher practice change. The model calls for all teachers and administrators to engage in a multi-year professional development effort which changed school culture, teachers re designing their units of study, teachers vetting all units and deciding which to contribute to a school based digital PBL library of unit plans and student artifacts, revisions in RTI, revisions in teacher evaluation and in student "grading".as well as an upgrading of grade level PLCs. The model empowers teachers to change how they deliver instruction so that MindQuest21 PBL is the dominant model of instruction in every classroom. The model was assessed in one three school public district with a rising "free and reduced,lunch" population. Following the pilot years, the Consortium initiated this change program in Chicago Public Schools, Atlanta Public Schools, and in a rural Illinois statewide network. The P21 Exemplar school site provides videos and descriptions of the Illinois projects as well as other PBL projects across the country.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has provided funding to start holistic PBL schools across the United States. These organizations include,
Big Picture Schools [1]
EdVisions Schools
Envision Schools
New Tech Network [2]
North Bay Academy of Communication and Design
Raisbeck Aviation High School[26]
Another example is Manor New Technology High School, a public high school that since opening in 2007 is a 100 percent project-based instruction school. Students average 60 projects a year across subjects. It is reported that 98 percent of seniors graduate, 100 percent of the graduates are accepted to college, and fifty-six percent of them have been the first in their family to attend college.[27]
The European Union has also providing funding for project-based learning projects within the Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013. For example, PopuLLar - Music and language learning, Moving toys in the classroom and ARTinED - A new approach to education using the arts.
According to Terry Heick on his blog, Teach Thought, there are three types of project-based learning. The first is Challenge-Based Learning/Problem-Based Learning, the second is Place-Based Education, and the third is Activity-Based learning. Challenge-Based Learning is "an engaging multidisciplinary approach to teaching and learning that encourages students to leverage the technology they use in their daily lives to solve real-world problems through efforts in their homes, schools and communities." Place-based Education "immerses students in local heritage, cultures, landscapes, opportunities and experiences; uses these as a foundation for the study of language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and other subjects across the curriculum, and emphasizes learning through participation in service projects for the local school and/or community." Activity-Based Learning takes a kind of constructivist approach, the idea being students constructing their own meaning through hands-on activities, often with manipulatives and opportunities to. As a private school provider Nobel Education Network combines PBL with the International Baccalaureate as a central pillar of their strategy.
Although projects are the primary vehicle for instruction in project-based learning, there are no commonly shared criteria for what constitutes an acceptable project. Projects vary greatly in the depth of the questions explored, the clarity of the learning goals, the content and structure of the activity, and guidance from the teacher. The role of projects in the overall curriculum is also open to interpretation. Projects can guide the entire curriculum (more common in charter or other alternative schools) or simply consist of a few hands-on activities. They might be multidisciplinary (more likely in elementary schools) or single-subject (commonly science and math). Some projects involve the whole class, while others are done in small groups or individually.
When PBL is used with 21st century tools/skills, students are expected to use technology in meaningful ways to help them investigate, collaborate, analyze, synthesize and present their learning. The term IPBL (Interdisciplinary PBL) has also been used to reflect a pedagogy where an emphasis on technology and/or an interdisciplinary approach has been included.
An example of a school that utilizes a project-based learning curriculum is Think Global School. In each country (THINK Global School) visits, students select an interdisciplinary, project-based learning module designed to help them answer key questions about the world around them. These projects combine elements of global studies, the sciences, and literature, among other courses. Projects from past years have included recreating Homer's The Odyssey by sailing across Greece and exploring the locations and concepts central to the epic poem, and while in Kerala, India, students participated in a project-based learning module centered around blending their learning and travels into a mock business venture. The interdisciplinary project was designed to enable students to engage in the key areas of problem solving, decision making and communication — all framed by the demanding parameters of a "Shark Tank", or "Dragon's Den" style competition.
Another example of applied PBL is Muscatine High School, located in Muscatine, Iowa. The school started the G2 (Global Generation Exponential Learning) which consists of middle and high school "Schools within Schools" that deliver the four core subject areas. At the high school level, activities may include making water purification systems, investigating service learning, or creating new bus routes. At the middle school level, activities may include researching trash statistics, documenting local history through interviews, or writing essays about a community scavenger hunt. Classes are designed to help diverse students become college and career ready after high school.
In 2009, The Illinois Consortium for 21st Century Schools lead by Deeper Learning author Jim Bellanca, initiated a 5 year deeper learning research project to identify the best practices and conditions among existing PBL models. In 6 pilot schools with students from the low performing to the highest performing, they piloted their findings. The goal was to test if all school/all day public schools could be transformed by PBL as initiated in schools such as Manor New Tech, This would test if traditional schools with established faculty could make such this deep shift.
As a result of the all school adoption of PBL in collaborative school wide cultures, several pilot schools earned accolades as P21 Exemplar schools (http://www.p21exemplars/Franklin) with raised achievement results and obvious evidence of teacher practice change. The model calls for all teachers and administrators to engage in a multi-year professional development effort which changed school culture, teachers re designing their units of study, teachers vetting all units and deciding which to contribute to a school based digital PBL library of unit plans and student artifacts, revisions in RTI, revisions in teacher evaluation and in student "grading".as well as an upgrading of grade level PLCs. The model empowers teachers to change how they deliver instruction so that MindQuest21 PBL is the dominant model of instruction in every classroom. The model was assessed in one three school public district with a rising "free and reduced,lunch" population. Following the pilot years, the Consortium initiated this change program in Chicago Public Schools, Atlanta Public Schools, and in a rural Illinois statewide network. The P21 Exemplar school site provides videos and descriptions of the Illinois projects as well as other PBL projects across the country.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has provided funding to start holistic PBL schools across the United States. These organizations include,
Big Picture Schools [1]
EdVisions Schools
Envision Schools
New Tech Network [2]
North Bay Academy of Communication and Design
Raisbeck Aviation High School[26]
Another example is Manor New Technology High School, a public high school that since opening in 2007 is a 100 percent project-based instruction school. Students average 60 projects a year across subjects. It is reported that 98 percent of seniors graduate, 100 percent of the graduates are accepted to college, and fifty-six percent of them have been the first in their family to attend college.[27]
The European Union has also providing funding for project-based learning projects within the Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013. For example, PopuLLar - Music and language learning, Moving toys in the classroom and ARTinED - A new approach to education using the arts.
According to Terry Heick on his blog, Teach Thought, there are three types of project-based learning. The first is Challenge-Based Learning/Problem-Based Learning, the second is Place-Based Education, and the third is Activity-Based learning. Challenge-Based Learning is "an engaging multidisciplinary approach to teaching and learning that encourages students to leverage the technology they use in their daily lives to solve real-world problems through efforts in their homes, schools and communities." Place-based Education "immerses students in local heritage, cultures, landscapes, opportunities and experiences; uses these as a foundation for the study of language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and other subjects across the curriculum, and emphasizes learning through participation in service projects for the local school and/or community." Activity-Based Learning takes a kind of constructivist approach, the idea being students constructing their own meaning through hands-on activities, often with manipulatives and opportunities to. As a private school provider Nobel Education Network combines PBL with the International Baccalaureate as a central pillar of their strategy.
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