From Pre-K to Ph.D. — Project-Based
Learning
Many educators, faced with the demands placed
on them by the NCLB, feel that projects are a luxury for which there
is no time. Some educators seem to think that project-based
learning is just for younger children, and by the time you get to
the middle schools and high schools projects have all but
disappeared. Read what Pete Border, physics professor at University
of Minnesota, has to say about project-based learning:
My department (physics at the U of
MN) uses PBL for the students it really cares about, which is to say
senior grad students working on their Ph.D.’s. Ph.D. candidates are
the students the Department has decided to educate as well as
possible regardless of cost, and the education they receive is
entirely based on apprenticeships, designing and solving projects,
long conversations, extended relationships and mentoring. Advisors
guide and consult, suggesting new avenues of research and listening
as much as talking. This is what the Department does when it has
decided to ignore cost, and to go for the finest education possible.
I find it very interesting that
there are no tests, bubble-sheets, drills, skill-tests, lectures,
worksheets or curriculum standards in the Ph.D. candidate program.
Even my Department knows, at its heart, that the finest education
comes from long, involved, projects, and this is the best way there
is to educate people!
It is true that Ph.D. candidates
are an extremely unusual lot, and are many sigma into the tails of
all distributions, but it is interesting that the
project-apprentice-mentor-PBL model is used by all Ph.D. programs
I’ve ever heard of, and that it always has been… Could it be because
it’s the model that really works?
June
1, 2006
Pete Border
teaches physics at the university level, and is involved with
4 PBL-based courses, three of which he designed. One is a class
on “Visualizing Physics” at MCAD (a local Art School) and the other
three are classes in the UMN Physics Dept (Freshman Seminar on
“Physics for Game Designers” , an online class on Game Design, and
the labs for their Honors Physics sections).
A
few examples:
· A
kindergarten class spends a year researching and creating a project
benefiting the local hospital emergency room .
· A
second-grade classroom researches cystic fibrosis (a classmate has
CF) and raises $1,200 in funds for cystic fibrosis research.
· Students
create and publish documentaries related to important social issues—
women’s rights, the environment, sweatshops, and more!
· At
a high school for law enforcement and criminal justice an
interdisciplinary team of teachers designs an integrated unit on the
theme of Monsters.
Project-based learning is real-world,
relevant, and integrates the curriculum. A growing number of
teachers would like to implement project-based, interdisciplinary,
thematic units in their classrooms - but are unsure of how to
begin. Knowing about some of the common misunderstandings
regarding project-based learning can help.
Attend our workshop,
Designing the 21st Century
Classroom, and/or Academics
in Action—Service Learning, or bring us to your campus or
district so that your schools can design and deliver truly 21st
century curriculum!
Links to Other Resources
Distinguishing
Features of a Project
Edutopia - an excellent
resource provided by the George Lucas Educational Foundation at
GLEF.org
Blazing Trails
with Online Project-Based Learning
The Project Approach - at ERIC/EECE
Of Chickens and
Projects, by Henry Olds, at the From Now On web site.
The
Guide on the Side - Project-Based Learning Resources
Water Pollution in Brazil and California - a Collaborative,
Interdisciplinary Study
Criteria for
Authentic Project-Based Learning
Project-Based
Learning Space, by Houghton-Mifflin
How to Design a Successful Project
BioBLAST - a NASA-funded
Multimedia Project
Technology Supports for Project-Based Learning
Project-Based Learning @ 2Learn Together - links to excellent
research reports on project-based learning
A
Review of Research on Project-Based Learning
Here is an excerpt from one of the postings to the listserv which I
would like to share with you:
1. Projects are in-depth collaborative studies which may take
several weeks to complete.
2. Projects develop organically from the interests and questions
the
children seem most eager to pursue.
3. Activities children engage in are derived as far as possible
from the prior experiences the children have, their wonderings
and questions about the topic (another way to put it:
activities would be designed to offer learning opportunities in
response to children's wondering and questions.)
4. Project activities are best not planned completely ahead of
time
without the involvement of the children in the planning.
5. There are not typically more than one or two different
projects going on at once in one class, because it is too
difficult to resource in-depth study in several areas at once -
it is more likely that children will be engaged in
investigations which may be quite diverse but are related to one
another through one topic which provides the starting point for
the study.
6. As teachers become more familiar with project work they
develop their understanding of which kinds of questions provide
the richest opportunities for sustained investigations
('activities') which can lead to learning of more general
principles and concepts ('the curriculum').
7. There would be no set collection of activities for a project
on snow, for example. If a child talks (in phase 1) about her
uncle walking on the snow with snow shoes but herself sinking in
when she tries to walk on the snow in her own boots the teacher
could facilitate an investigation ('activity') to be undertaken
by this child and two or three others who want to join her to
investigate how you can figure out ways to walk on or move
across the snow without sinking in, and a first hand study of
the construction of snow shoes.
8. Each project is quite distinctly different from any other
project on
the same topic undertaken by a different group of children
because the prior experiences, interests and questions of
different groups of children would not be the same.
9. Project work can most easily be understood as a progression
in
understanding by a group of children who are learning from one
another as they engage in different investigations and share
their representations of their experiences with other children.
10. In projects not all children do the same activities.
11. Children often work at activities which require
collaboration in
12. Projects are characterized by much discussion (in pairs,
groups and the whole class of children); children share and
discuss their
investigations and representations.
13. Many teachers find a three phase structure useful for
planning, and evaluation involving the children (starting,
developing and concluding the
14. Teachers who work with children who are in two different
groups (e.g. am and pm children) or different groups with
different schedules find that the project work can provide
opportunities for children to communicate with each other about
the progress of the work, in which they all have an interest.
15. Children's work and photos of children at work are
displayed with captions providing documentation of the learning
processes and the contribution of the investigations and
representations to the children's learning.
etc. etc....
In an article entitled, 'From Themes to Projects' I wrote about
some of these ideas with examples from teachers' experiences:
Sylvia
Professor of Early Childhood Education
Director of the Child Study Center
Department of Elementary Education
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2G5
