10.03.2019
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PBL — project-based learning overview

What is PBL?

PBL is a student-centered approach which is dynamic and helps students acquire knowledge via exploration of real-life problems and challenges. Thom Markham underlines that PBL is based not only on learning but doing, too, enhancing students to apply their knowledge to authentic situations.

What’s curious is that this generated knowledge by PBL cannot be taken just out of the textbooks, but should be gained through experience. Project-based learning prepares students for becoming successful in their life and career.

PBL ideas

Jane Krauss in Thinking Through Project-Based Learning gives a clear set of PBL ideas on how PBL works and what role a teacher/a student plays in her table:

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PBL elicits higher-order thinking, provokes inquiry skills, discovers students’ open-mindedness, collaboration, and the purpose of learning.

Features

Creating PBL challenge for your students, follow the steps offered in circles above.

Well, to make the skeleton of the so-called field work, pay attention to the following: Design elements:

  1. A challenging problem or question: you select the issue for your student/s (to make it productive, give your students a questionnaire to select the topic they’re interested in).
  2. Sustained inquiry: students look for researches, investigate.
  3. Authenticity: offer a real-life topic that is applicable to students’ lives.
  4. Students voice & choice: they select methods and ways.
  5. Reflections: students and teachers reflect on the course of work, mending obstacles and gaps.
  6. Critique & Revision: students receive feedback on their project.
  7. Public product: students present their product in public.

Teaching elements:

  1. Design & Plan: teachers plan the project and its embodiment, with some space for students’ voice & choice.
  2. Align to standards: teachers link the project and knowledge to the target subject.
  3. Build the culture: collaboration, attention, communication are the key principles while working on the mutual project.
  4. Manage activities: teachers manage deadlines, presentations overview.
  5. Scaffold student learning: teachers provide students with materials and ideas for their project, assist them on the way.
  6. Assess students learning: teachers apply different types of assessment: formative, summative, self- and peer assessment.
  7. Engage & Coach: teachers engage in the process, encouraging and facilitating students.

Peculiarities

PBL teaches students

— to use 21-century tools and modern technologies;

— to be open-minded and collaborative;

— to develop critical thinking;

— to solve real-life situations that are essential to our world;

— to encourage team-building;

— to manage time and plan their activities.

Duration

Classroom: you can give your class (divide a class into groups) a mutual project or presentation for a month/3-month period/semester or a summer task.

Individual: you can give a personal project/presentation for a single student.

If we talk about a class, such a type of work will help learners to collaborate, boost creativity, and apply knowledge. If it’s an individual project, your student can collaborate with you, and you’ll also perform here as a facilitator.

Why PBL & which age?

why Skyteach

Let’s ask statistics in order we could understand what is interesting and what is not for our students. You can create a google form to survey your students concerning topics.

This is the stats of US colleges that showed the reality and pushed PBL to blossom:

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source: Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning

You can see that young, high school students and even adults can be tired of monotonous routine tasks, hence PBL is a nice alternative to make your lessons entertaining.

PBL suits well young learners, but you can also try it with college/university students as well. Moreover, I strongly believe that adults will also benefit from this approach. I’ve tried half-project/some of the elements with a couple of my Fashion students, for example, and I can assure it’s effective when you need to help your students gain specific knowledge in their field, connect it to modern technologies and get a by-product in the end.

All in all, Project-based learning is one more learning-by-doing teaching method that enhances students to query about real-world problems, be concerned about global issues, and be ready to cooperate to make a difference.

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