Blog Post #9

What Can Students and Teachers Teach Us About Project Based Learning?

At this point in EDM310 project based learning is no longer an unfamiliar concept. I still don't know all there is to know about PBL but I feel I now have a good base to build upon going forward. The article Seven Essentials for Project Based Learning gives several key factors needed for project based learning. They are as follows:

1. A Need to Know - it is a good idea for teachers to introduce a project through a means that will "activate" the students. She could show a video, the class could take a virtual or real life field trip, or they could engage in a class discussion. Doing this will help to get the students attention from the beginning.
2. A Driving Question - a good, open-ended driving question helps to guide the students through the project. It is the foundation. The video Project Based Learning for Teachers by Tony Vincent gives some examples of what a driving questions looks like.
3. Student Voice and Choice - the more choices students have within a project the more meaningful it can become to them. They can make the decisions on what resources they will use and what they can create from it.
4. 21st Century Skills - these are skills such as collaboration, use of technology and critical thinking. Students can acquire these skills through PBL and can continue to use them in the future.
5. Inquiry and Innovation - real inquiry is where students follow a path that starts with their own questions that allows them to research for the answers. This can lead to new questions which can inspire students to test ideas and ultimately draw their own conclusion. This process is the exact opposite from the teacher to reproduce information already given to them through textbooks or the teacher herself.
6. Feedback and Revision - feedback on a project helps to make learning more meaningful. This can be done directly or through rubrics.
7. A Publicly Presented Project - if a student knows their work will be presented to an audience they are more likely to care about the quality of their project.

 

I have seen several videos that shows the positive effects of project based learning with students. However, until I watched how teachers meet the challenges of PBL implementation I realized all of the great opportunities it bring for teachers. The high school teachers in this video talked about how exciting it was for them to be able to have a voice in how their class is designed through PBL. They also mentioned the opportunities it gave them to come together and collaborate with one another. 

I really enjoyed watching students talk about what motivates them. One boy said that positive feedback from his teacher really motivates him. Another talks about how he will not be able to participate in baseball if he does not do well at school. I think this is such an important question to ask students. I think teachers definitely should want to find out what motivates their students so that they can use that information to help them in class.

When students are motivated I believe it helps to give them the little extra push  to take their thinking and work to a higher level. For instance, look at the two students who solved the case of watery ketchup. The first thing I wanted to know after watching this was is this gadget sold in stores? It was really neat to see two students put their minds together to create something like this!