Project-based learning
Structure
Project-based learning emphasizes
learning activities that are long-term, interdisciplinary and student-centered.
Unlike traditional, teacher-led classroom activities, students often must
organize their own work and manage their own time in a project-based class. Project-based instruction differs from traditional inquiry
by its emphasis on students' collaborative or individual artifact construction
to represent what is being learned.
Elements
The core idea of project-based
learning is that real-world problems capture students' interest and provoke
serious thinking as the students acquire and apply new knowledge in a
problem-solving context. The teacher plays the role of facilitator, working
with students to frame worthwhile questions, structuring meaningful tasks,
coaching both knowledge development and social skills, and carefully assessing
what students have learned from the experience.
Roles
PBL relies on learning groups.
Student groups determine their projects, in so doing, they engage student
voice by encouraging students to take full responsibility for their
learning. This is what makes PBL constructivist. Students work together to
accomplish specific goals. When students use technology as a tool to
communicate with others, they take on an active role vs. a passive role of
transmitting the information by a teacher, a book, or broadcast. The student is
constantly making choices on how to obtain, display, or manipulate information.
Technology makes it possible for students to think actively about the choices
they make and execute.
Every student has the opportunity to get
involved either individually or as a group.Student role is to ask questions,
build knowledge, and determine a real-world solution to the issue/question
presented.
Outcomes
More
important than learning science, students need to learn to work in a community,
thereby taking on social responsibilities. The most significant contributions
of PBL have been in schools languishing in poverty stricken areas; when
students take responsibility, or ownership, for their learning, their
self-esteem soars. It also helps to create better work habits and
attitudes toward learning. Students have to find answers to questions and
combine them using critically thinking skills to come up with answers.
