It took me some time and much thought to get my head around Project Based Learning. I knew that it sounded innovative and exciting and would promote student agency, but I just couldn't get my head around a few things:
- How do you organise it?
- How do you make sure that the children are contributing equally( that the less confident or harder to engage children are engaged?
- How do you assess it?
- How do you know that 'the curriculum' is being covered?
- How do you find suitable projects?
- How do you cater for different abilities? and many more questions..
I knew from what I had read and was beginning to hear, that PBL is a way that we will engage our students, make education more applicable to life, promote the competencies of the future (Creativity, Collaboration, Communication, Citizenship Critical thinking, Character) as Michael Fullan (2014) promotes in his 'A Rich Seam'.
I already had self regulated learning happening in my class, (I was feeling pretty self satisfied) my team was engaging in some effective but still sylo based collaboration (within subject areas, literacy, numeracy, Inquiry, Independent projects,) and I knew without really knowing how, that PBL was where I wanted to be heading. I even found myself saying in staff PD that in the future when our students have even more agency and our learning is more project based (but not in the 80's and 90's way of 'doing a project - doing Fiji' or 'doing Japan') that we will really be catering for our children in so many ways. I still didn't know how it would work.
What made the penny drop for me was when I attended the Maths Symposium in Christchurch in 2014. I attended a workshop on rich learning tasks in maths. All of a sudden the answers to all of the questions above popped into my head. The facilitator had us using sample problems from the Figure it Out series and converting them into open ended, multi strategy level problems. She showed us how to set the driving question, and then monitor the way the children set about solving the problem in their mixed ability groups. She showed us how to provide workshops that her observations picked up as next steps for groups across groups. Suddenly I could see how this could work with bigger, longer lasting contextualised problems. The light came on! I went back to my then staff and ran the same workshop. I was delighted to see the same penny drop with several of the staff. Some of us started with rich learning tasks, which then led on to the project based learning approach.
It is interesting to me that in this country, the early adopters for innovative learning tend to come from primary. Secondary schools are beginning to adopt innovative learning practices with their year 9 and 10 students as these students are coming as a wave out of primary. Secondary teachers say that the constraints of NCEA make innovative learning too hard beyond those two years. I say it is coming. (PBL in secondary) ECE teachers will tell us, correctly, that this 'innovative' learning is the way they have always believed education should cater for learners' needs, as some visitors from local ECE's recently pointed out to us. Yet Fullan and Couros (Posts from The Principal of Change and Innovative Mindset ) and many others began their PBL journey in high schools. Some years ago, Jo and I studied and presented about a school that Fullan worked with on PBL called the Mary Ward School in Canada. These students worked on real life problems in a hub where multi discipline teachers were together and where the students could access the help of the teacher that they needed to learn the relevant knowledge and skills from.
Through our ongoing studies, we can see the benefits to the students of PBL: engagement, relevance, 21C competencies, (6 C's) and using technology for new learning and global communication. This is exciting.
I already had self regulated learning happening in my class, (I was feeling pretty self satisfied) my team was engaging in some effective but still sylo based collaboration (within subject areas, literacy, numeracy, Inquiry, Independent projects,) and I knew without really knowing how, that PBL was where I wanted to be heading. I even found myself saying in staff PD that in the future when our students have even more agency and our learning is more project based (but not in the 80's and 90's way of 'doing a project - doing Fiji' or 'doing Japan') that we will really be catering for our children in so many ways. I still didn't know how it would work.
What made the penny drop for me was when I attended the Maths Symposium in Christchurch in 2014. I attended a workshop on rich learning tasks in maths. All of a sudden the answers to all of the questions above popped into my head. The facilitator had us using sample problems from the Figure it Out series and converting them into open ended, multi strategy level problems. She showed us how to set the driving question, and then monitor the way the children set about solving the problem in their mixed ability groups. She showed us how to provide workshops that her observations picked up as next steps for groups across groups. Suddenly I could see how this could work with bigger, longer lasting contextualised problems. The light came on! I went back to my then staff and ran the same workshop. I was delighted to see the same penny drop with several of the staff. Some of us started with rich learning tasks, which then led on to the project based learning approach.
It is interesting to me that in this country, the early adopters for innovative learning tend to come from primary. Secondary schools are beginning to adopt innovative learning practices with their year 9 and 10 students as these students are coming as a wave out of primary. Secondary teachers say that the constraints of NCEA make innovative learning too hard beyond those two years. I say it is coming. (PBL in secondary) ECE teachers will tell us, correctly, that this 'innovative' learning is the way they have always believed education should cater for learners' needs, as some visitors from local ECE's recently pointed out to us. Yet Fullan and Couros (Posts from The Principal of Change and Innovative Mindset ) and many others began their PBL journey in high schools. Some years ago, Jo and I studied and presented about a school that Fullan worked with on PBL called the Mary Ward School in Canada. These students worked on real life problems in a hub where multi discipline teachers were together and where the students could access the help of the teacher that they needed to learn the relevant knowledge and skills from.
Through our ongoing studies, we can see the benefits to the students of PBL: engagement, relevance, 21C competencies, (6 C's) and using technology for new learning and global communication. This is exciting.
Buck Institute for Education, (2015). Adapted from Setting the Standards for Project Based Learning; A Proven Approach to Rigorous Classroom Instruction, by John Larmer, JOhn Mergendoller, Susie Boss (ASCD 2015)
Bell, S. (2010). Project-Based Learning for the 21st Century: Skills for the Future. The Clearing House, 83:39-43. doi:10.1080/00098650903505415
Catapano, S., & Gray, J. (2015). Saturday School: Implementing Project-Based Learning in an Urban School. PennGSE Perspectives on Urban Education, 12(1). Retrieved from: http://www.urbanedjournal.org
Clark, A. (2006). Changing Classroom Practice to Include the Project Approach. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 8(2).
Diffily, D. (2002). Project-Based Learning: Meeting Social Studies Standards and the Needs of Gifted Learners. Gifted Child Today, 10762175, 25(3)
English, M., & Kitsantas, A. (2013). Supporting Student Self-Regulated Learning in Problem- and Project-Based Learning. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning. 7(2)
Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.7771/1541-5015.1339
Galvan, M., & Coronado, J. (2014). Problem-Based and Project-Based Learning: Promoting Differentiated Instruction. National Teacher Education Journal, 7(4)
Hertzog, N. (2007). Transporting Pedagogy: Implementing the Project Approach in Two First-Grade Classrooms. Journal of Advanced Academics 18(4)
Holm, M. (2011). Project-Based Instruction: A Review of the Literature on Effectiveness in PreKindergarten through 12th Grade Classrooms. InSight: Rivier Academic Journal, 7(2)
Lee, C. (2015). Project-Based Learning and Invitations: A Comparison. Journal of Curriculum Theorising, 30(3)
Lin, T. (2016). The Evolution of Education. Your Weekend The Press.
Loyens, S., Madga, J., & Rikers, R. (2008). Self-Directed Learning and Problem-Based Learning and its relationships with Self-Regulated Learning. Educ Psychol Rev (2008) 20:411-427. DOI 10.1007/s10648-9082-7
Ministry of Education. (2013). Ka Hikitia Accelerating Success 2013-2017. The Maori Education Strategy. Wellington, NZ.
Rangahau: Principles of Kaupapa Maori. (n.d.) Retrieved from: http://http://www.rangahau.co.nz/research-idea/27/
Robinson, K. (2008). RSA Animate | Changing Education Paradigm. Retrieved from: https://www.thersa.org/globalassets/pdfs/videos/2010/10/rsa-animate---changing-paradigms/rsa-lecture-ken-robinson-transcript.pdf
Sungur, S. & Tekkaya, C. (2006). Effects of Problem-Based Learning and Traditional Instruction on Self-Regulated Learning. The Journal of Educational Research, 99(5).
Tamim, S., & Grant, M. (2013). Definitions and Uses: Case Study of Teachers Implementing Project-based Learning. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning. 7(2)
Thomas, J. (2000). A Review of Research on Project-Based Learning. San Rafael, California 94903. Retrieved from http://www.bie.org/reserach/study/review_of_project_based_learning_2000http://www.michaelfullan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/3897.Rich_Seam_web.pdf
Great post Maire. I think PBL has mixed understanding out there, like anything new it needs clear staff development so that it doesn't get lost in "Children's Interest Projects". It is more than children doing interest subjects or projects. On a trip to a MLE School in Auckland, I saw this happening and thought to myself how do these teachers ensure curriculum development; development of knowledge and skills if every time a "Break Out" session occurs a child is working on their interest topic of dinosaurs. I thought that there needed to be more specific guidelines in place. PBL I think provides those guidelines. I have used PBL - probably without knowing it as part of my Inquiry. It become the "So What" aspect that encouraged children to branch out, question and search out their own inquiring's related to the curriculum area we were focused on as a school. The assessing part of the PBL become an interesting aspect. How did I ensure as a teacher that I could monitor progress etc? I decided to use rubrics to guide student progress and achievement in this area - then ultimately had the students creating their own rubrics that could be peer assessed and self assessed. Also I was an early adopter of SOLO Taxonomy. SOLO Taxonomy (structure of observed learning outcomes) provides a simple, reliable and robust model for three levels of understanding – surface deep and conceptual (Biggs and Collis 1982).
ReplyDelete“Learning to learn” requires the learner to think about the strengths and weaknesses of their own thinking when they are learning and to make thoughtful decisions on what to do next. Students of all ages can use SOLO levels, rubrics and frameworks to answer the following questions:
◾What am I learning?
◾How is it going?
◾What do I do next?
This seemed to tie in nicely with the Inquiry approach that I was operating within. I look forward to seeing how this PBL approach can be implemented within a variety of curriculum areas, ultimately I too believe that it can lift student engagement!!!
Project Based Learning according to your intro to it here sounds like a necessary move in the right direction, as more and more of this generation's employment opportunities become deeply collaborative and often rely heavily on self motivation skills. Picking these skills up as an adult can be difficult and learning to trust others in project-based workplaces after years of independent work can feel like walking blind! It’s exciting to think that as students become Project Based Learners they will become more aware of themselves as one specific part of a broadly functioning team, and they might naturally develop ways to recognize and value their strengths as individuals rather than learning to compare and compete as matching sheep in a flock. This is bound to impact positively on their self esteem tendencies and on their inner toolkit in the face of the self esteem epidemic and mental health crisis scenario associated with their post-school life.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in the role of autonomy within collaboration –is this a holistic teaching approach, or what ratio of your school day consists of PBL? Do the deeper-context problems or ‘driving questions’ you have mentioned cross subjects or are children working on a separate project for each subject? Do you have a good strategy or process for coming up with these driving questions? Do these children become masters of PBL and then suffer when it comes to individual testing situations? Do you have any trouble with kids at the bright end of the spectrum suffering a lack of ownership over their work as they learn to trust mixed ability class mates with their work ? Do teachers need to take on all of the facilitating of the projects, or do the students learn key facilitation skills to carry that part out themselves? Do students assign themselves homework?
The secondary school thing is an interesting one - I’ve noticed that secondary school students with unlimited access to social media have naturally become such deep collaborators that they can start to lose confidence in independent situations – they start to lean so heavily on the ‘ask a friend’ mentality which with social media access they can now take all the way home with them. I wonder how this impacts on their exam confidence at the NCEA level, and I suspect it’s even more of a reason for PBL at secondary schools – so that teaching styles and assessment methods can keep up with the shifting lifestyle of a social media savvy teenager.
Right on the mark thank you so much. Really good, thought provoking comments. Funny, I was settling down to do my individual assignment this week after three in a row collab ones and I felt a bit vulnerable to start with! So we will have to be careful that we don't entrench the collaborative skills at the expense of individual initiative.
DeleteThis post really got me thinking and actually prompted my next PBL post http://jothinkingonline.blogspot.co.nz/2016/05/project-based-learning.html
ReplyDeleteIt made me really think that if we are asking our teachers to create rich learning tasks to engage students in deeper learning that it would be good to have a structure around that - maybe that is PBL (project or problem) depending on the curriculum area the task/ project or problem is set in. With teachers setting the driving questions maybe this is the way that we are able to "cover" curriculum if we still have to... and then I read this https://medium.com/modern-learning/9-elephants-in-the-class-room-that-should-unsettle-us-8335b2cef9aa#.srg86s3bm and once again I am unsettled - which is a good thing. Great post - thanks!
Thanks Jo. I had a look at that Medium link that you gave me above. So much of it resonated with me! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete