How exciting! My first post (also to be found here) in my first class towards my MET degree! This is a big step for me, and I’m looking forward to delving into academia and immersing myself in engaging, interactive technology. I know this will greatly improve my effectiveness as a teacher and allow me to be in line with 21st century standards of education.
In EdTech 542 I look forward to learning about what PBL, in fact, is. I’ve heard of constructivist learning and using multi-disciplinary projects in the classroom, of course, but I haven’t heard “PBL” as a specific and well-defined method of instruction before. I hope it’s not a fad, or a passing “buzzword”, or an ideal that is almost impossible to achieve given the reality of expectations passed onto us from administration, government standards, parents, and other teacher. It’s possible that an open-ended, lengthy project is too good to be true—perhaps something reserved for an alternative school or home school. Therefore, I look forward to reading and learning about how it’s been done in the public school system and how its success has been charted. I also look forward to examples and testimonies to verify the merit of this educational enterprise!
Despite my initial “worry”, looking at it conceptually and at first glance, PBL learning seems right up my alley and well in line with my ideals of good teaching. Making information relevant, fun, creative and interconnected makes it memorable and special. Students become weary of the lectures, notes, quizzes, and test. Even projects can sometimes resemble a dumping ground for information on the test that the teacher “didn’t get to,” and it becomes a chore (or an encyclopedic regurgitation) versus a pride-worthy creation. I also value social interaction and engagement in the classroom, and I feel these skills are lacking in many of my students. Hopefully PBL will help them improve these interpersonal and collaborative skills. It will also surely help reach all learners, as they can work at their own pace and in their own way, to a large extent. I just hope I’m able to address the scope and sequence of material in the allotted amount of time with this methodology. I’m bound to find out soon!
I’ve enjoyed this week’s activities of creating an “ad” for ourselves. I love Photoshop and all things graphic, even though I still feel like a novice. It was incredible to see the different ways my peers chose to represent themselves as teachers. I also learned a few new web 2.0 sites I’d like to explore with my students. On that note, here is the link I posted to the Digital Age diigo site: http://learninginhand.com/pbl/ It looks like it shares great ideas for the mobile or app-filled classroom.
Our task this week was to define PBL, amongst other things, as well as respond to our peers’ observations. Here is my posted reflection to the task:
What is Project Based Learning?
Project Based Learning is an active, student-centered, inquiry-based pedagogy that features the understanding of subject content through the learning of (21st century) skills. These skills include “working in groups, making choices, monitoring progress, thinking deeply about a problem or challenge, and communicating what has been learned” (John Mergondoller, edutopia.org). As in the Edutopia video Professor Papout essentially put it, it’s learning something when and where you need it. That’s what makes it authentic learning. The idea is that students are deeply cognitively engaged in creating a meaningful project that is centered on real inquiry, complete with questions, hypotheses, research, tests, and conclusions (7 Essentials for Project-Based Learning (bie.org) p.3). However, it is not just for Science class—it can feature in any classroom with any subject matter. As Chris Lehmann (edutopia.org) expressed, it doesn’t just prepare students for but actually connects students with “the real world.” This style of learning highlights the teacher’s role as “guide on the side”, not “sage on the stage” (as the old adage goes).
The difference between Project Based Learning and Problem Based Learning is not as clear-cut as we might expect. Even among experts, there is some disparity in the way these education styles are defined. In his article A Review of Research on Project-Based Learning, Dr. John Thomas points out that there is diversity in the understanding of the components (defining features) of PBL and that there is no universally accepted model (p. 2). Even the definitions offered at the “Teacher Tap” section of the website eduscapes.com were rather ambiguous. Nevertheless, the amount of student autonomy in the design and execution of the project process appears to be at the heart of the distinction between these two terms. In problem-based learning, the instructor provides the context and problem that the students are responsible for solving methodically through inquiry techniques. The solution is the goal. In project-based learning, the teacher allows the students to latch on to a driving question and work organically to create a culminating project, which is a product that synthesizes and publishes their learning. In this way, the problem-solving component is a natural part of the process rather than the culminating goal.
A PBL billboard might read, “Invigorate your learning environment, energizing (your) curriculum with a real-world relevance and sparking students’ desire to explore, investigate, and understand their world” (Edutopia.org). Who wouldn’t jump on board? I would advocate for teachers’ incorporation PBL in their classroom because it dramatically enhances student engagement and allows students to construct and shape their own learning according to their own learning styles, abilities, interests, and background knowledge. It allows for non-contrived differentiation. It also fosters skills of a lifelong learner such as higher-order thinking, cooperation and communication, reflection, organization, and self-motivation and -direction (which are imperative in my opinion). PBL is also a great entryway for teaching technology skills as a means of research, collaboration, and presentation. The Edutopia website introductory video and article also highlight such benefits as increased academic achievement, increased retention and application of information, increased confidence, and activism. In my opinion, one of the biggest “selling points” is that students are emotionally involved in their educational experience.
There appear to be essential components of a PBL approach to instruction. According to the article “7 Essentials for Project-Based Learning” (bie.org) these include 1) an entry event to initiate interest and questioning, 2) a driving question that is “provocative, open-ended, complex, and linked to core of what students need to learn”, 3) student decision-making in their topics, products, resources, time structure, and assessment (which should include individual and group tasks) 4) development of skills needed to engage in process (metacognitive reflection, working with rubrics, collaboration with role-playing and team-building activities, learning to use task organizers and relevant technology), 5) engaging in inquiry and innovation processes (publicly “fine-tuning” their personal or small-group questioning), 6) feedback and revision with peer-critiques, team meetings, teacher reviews of rough drafts and notes, expert mentors, and 7) a publicly-presented product to be shared with an community-based audience. Although this process is largely student-driven, it’s important to remember that the teacher’s role at all these steps is to provide scaffolding, guidance, and practice in a supervised, structured way so that they understand what they need to do and how.
Reference
BIE. Why Project Based
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