Exemplars of PBL (Project Based Learning)
The examples given on the three Edutopia web pages (“More Fun Than a Barrel of . . . Worms?!” - Diane Curtis, Edutopia, http://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms; “Geometry Students Angle into Architecture Through Project Learning” - Sara Armstrong, Edutopia, http://www.edutopia.org/geometry-real-world-students-architects and “March of the Monarchs: Students Follow the Butterflies' Migration” - Diane Curtis, Edutopia, http://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs) are three excellent of PBL experiences that all students could definitely benefit from participating in. These projects are so much more engaging, powerful, rich and full of longer lasting educational learning experiences to our students than what they could ever get from simply reading text from a book or by just reading information from the several websites that they visit on a daily basis.
Some of the circumstances and design principles that are common amongst all three of these PBL scenarios are as follows. In all three cases, the students (and staff as well) had open access to a multitudinous amount of technology. Students were able to access computers, the Internet, Microsoft Office programs and other technology tools that were needed in order to successfully complete the project(s) that they were working on. Not only did they have access to technology but they all also had access to several outside sources and experts in the field (from the parents and the student who has Cystic Fibrosis, to the architects and the Annenburg/CPB Project for Journey North. Without these additional resources the students more than likely would not have gotten the full experiences that they clearly did.
In all of the examples given, the teachers made the decision that the students would definitely get more out of doing a hands-on multidisciplinary project instead of reading out of a textbook and listening to their teacher lecture. The teachers designed the projects in all cases to be open-ended, flexible and ones of which could be changed based upon how the students were doing, or even based upon the interests that they had. For example, the one project started with an analysis of the stock market but based upon the interests of the students, they soon started a company, learned how it worked, sold shares for the company and then learned key business concepts when they found out that their classmates from 5th grade were planning a hostile takeover in trying to buy the majority of the shares. There is NO WAY that anyone could get such a valuable experience by reading a textbook, listening to his/her teacher and then taking a test over such information.
Also, in all three cases, another common circumstance was that the educators involved wanted to give their students the opportunity to participate in such unique, hands-on enriched activities. They all realized that this is a huge time commitment and even though it takes a lot more work to do a PBL exercise than it does to lecture, they knew that their students would get so much more out of the hands-on activities, projects, etc. then they ever could have by reading a book. Students are engaged and are way more responsible for what they inevitably learn as an end result of these projects instead textbook only learning activities. I know that in the projects that take place in the class of which I teach (TV Studio), the students get so much more out of them then they ever could if I would give them some kind of a written activity or evaluation. The integration of technology does get students more excited about learning and in the technology classes that are taught at our school, we definitely notice a lack of disciplinary problems and students wanting to do more and to learn more, let alone the fact that they have the intrinsic desire to learn more.
The roles of the teachers and students in all of the examples cited are very similar yet are a drastic departure from educating students as we know it – especially from the way educators learned to teach their students when they were in college several years (if not decades) ago. The teachers in all of the cases sited are no longer the sage on the stage. They don’t get up in front of the case, lecture their students based upon the voluminous amounts of pages that they read in a textbook and then expect them to regurgitate that information back on a test, more than likely forgetting it in the days and weeks to come. The teachers are guides on the sides. They give some initial guidance on the project as the students sit down and talk about the topics at hand, and then students do a lot of the research, project work, etc. on their own with minimal guidance from their teachers, other than to help answer some questions, get them back on track if at all possible and maybe help get past some stumbling blocks that they might have. The students in each group are basically their own teachers – they do their research, help each other by explaining/teaching concepts to their group members. They simply don’t sit idle and try to soak up all of the information being given by the teacher like a sponge. They are engaged in their learning and what they are doing; it is hands-on time and time again. Because of the learning that goes on, and the process by which it happens (especially when it comes to groups giving presentations to other class members, the architects in the one case, and to the multitudinous number of others of whom the information is presented to), the roles of the teachers and students in PBL-based classrooms are actually reversed in my opinion.
Student learning and engagement in PBL-based classrooms appear to be in a different league than in those classrooms where students simply sit around and listen to their teachers lecture. The students are taking complete ownership of the learning that goes on, not the teacher, and because of working in groups they are quick to point out to their classroom teacher when another group member (or members) is not doing his or her part. This in and of itself is engaging the students to make sure that all members of the group are doing his or her fair share, more than likely to an extent because the group’s overall grade could be brought down as a result of a group member’s actions. It makes students more conscientious about their grades. Students are being challenged to think at the highest levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy as a result of the PBL exercises. They have to figure out how and why things happen. They have to think about how event A will affect the outcome of event B (and C, D, E, etc.) They learn about real life situations in a hands-on environment. Not having hands-on based activities and the usage of high order level thinking skills is a travesty to students in education. They need to broaden their horizons and the use of PBL activities will most definitely do that. When students are active in such activities, they learn the skills that they need in order to solve the problem(s) at hand. It’s one thing to read from a textbook how to build a computer and install Windows onto a computer but until you actually take the time to experience the experience, you will not get the full benefit from it. PBL projects do just that – they help you learn by being actively engaged. The more skills that a student gets to practice and be exposed to in real life situations, the more that they are going to retain, making them a better learner and student in the long run. The more that they have to sit around and learn from a book and from a teacher who lectures, the less that they are going to retain from day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year. The more students are actively learning, the more they are able to transfer the knowledge that they learn from one situation to another situation. PBL gives them the experience to now say “OK, I learned to build a computer and install Windows with these components. Now, how do I make a modification to build this different kind of computer of install a different version of Windows. Or, since I had so many different experiences on learning how to troubleshoot problems with Microsoft Office, troubleshooting problems with Open Office or Star Office or Microsoft Office for the Macintosh will definitely not be a problem. In general, the more different experiences that students can engage in, the more information that they will be able to retain and transfer to either similar or different situations. This same transfer of learning will not take place should they only be learning from the reading of a textbook or by listening to their teachers mainly lecture.
Students are also highly engaged and are able to transfer information from situation to situation because of the presentations that they due in the PBL projects or when they actually have to run the company and deal with the day to day problems that may occur. When the students have to take the time to put a presentation of how their new school will look, what the final costs will be to build it and then present it to the architects who ask questions and ask why a certain decision was made, students remember more of what they learned since they have to apply themselves more.
All these points make the use of PBL projects in classrooms an invaluable experience for students to be a part of. Even though teachers will gladly admit to the fact that these kinds of experiences for their students take an immense amount of additional time to prepare for, the end result for the students are totally worth it. Students take more away in the short and long run from being actively engaged in their education instead of not being actively engaged in their education.
posted by Dennis Klaustermeyer @ 7:28 PM
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